The Pechenganickel Mining & Metallurgical Combine (joint stock company).

Nickel
Russia

The combine comprises four open pits, an enrichment plant, a roasting shop, smelting and sulphuric acid production shops. There are also motor and rail transport repair workshops and other auxiliary facilities essential for maintaining production.

August 25, 2016 - Ruslan Tischenko, a former official from Murmansk’s division of Russia’s federal environmental watchdog, pleaded guilty in court today of accepting bribes from one of the Kola Peninsula’s most polluting industries, the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company.  The KMMC has long been at flashpoint of controversy for polluting not just the Kola Peninsula with toxic sulfur dioxide, but neighboring northern Norway, Sweden and Finland as well.  Much of Norway’s inability to negotiate with Russia over this problem stems from the insistence of Russia’s environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor’s failure to adequately and scientifically establish the problem.  Because the official was said by prosecutors to be a cooperative witness, what comes next in the trial could bring down a cascade of corruption indictments against KMMC management and federal environmental officials.  The KMMC is a daughter company of Norilsk Nickel, a Russian industrial giant that provides a third of the world’s nickel supply.  Recently, mid-level politicians in Norway have appealed to Oslo to enforce travel bans to Europe for Norilsk Nickel’s majority shareholder, oligarch Vladimir Potantin, until he brings the Kola plants into accord with contemporary environmental standards.  At today’s hearing, both Tischenko and his lawyer objected to press being present in the gallery, but the judge allowed journalists for the hearing’s public portion.  Tishenko also pleaded guilty to another unrelated charge of taking bribes from another Murmansk area concern called the City Center for Expert Evaluation, an environmental auditing firm.  In this instance, Tishenko was arrested in December 2014 while in the act of receiving a bribe totaling 1,229,000 rubles ($19,000) from an unnamed official with the City Center for Expert Evaluation.  In return, he assured the company quick acceptance by Rosprirodnadzor of its documents on reissuing a license to a third company, Apatit, a Murmansk area mining and processing company, to store various classes of dangerous waste.  Relative to the KMMC, Tischenko said he was guilty of accepting more than 6 million rubles ($92,000) from another unknown person within the management of the company to assure its relicensing for decontamination and storage of various classes of toxic waste and for confirming the company was spewing pollution within limits regulated by the Russian government.  At today’s hearing, prosecutors charged that Tischenko had brought to light “violations of current legislation” that ran afoul of established norms and limits for pollution established for the KMMC.  The charges further read that he willfully devised to flout these norms by receiving bribes, and in return relicense the facility despite its polluting record.  After the reading of the charges, Tischenko rose and told the court that, “I confess my guilt in both episodes fully.”  For its part, the KMMC, which could also be facing legal proceedings in a separate hearing, maintained through its press office that it considers the currents case to be a “misunderstanding,”  “The company will not comment on the investigation or the court proceedings. We are certain that this is a misunderstanding, and the company has no ties to the proceedings,” the KMMC’s press service told Bellona today.  To this point, and to the fury of many local and Norwegian environmentalists, the KMMC has paid a total of 25,000 rubles ($382) for exceeding the norms of sulfur dioxide concentrations it is allowed by current pollution mandates.  According to the prosecutor, a plea-bargain has been reached with Tischenko, and he has cooperated with the investigation, including giving detailed information during interrogation, and has supplied information on those he colluded with.  “Information from the investigation has facilitated the bringing of criminal charges regarding other persons of interest in corrupt activities,” said the prosecutor at today’s hearing. “[Tischenko] has also given up the funding her received in bribes.”  At this, the public session the press was allowed to attend ended. The judge assessed the remaining portion of the hearing, because of its relation to the specifics of the investigation, closed.

August 25, 2014 - Sulphur dioxide pollution significantly up from Kola GMK’s smelters in Nikel and Monchegorsk.  Norwegians measure more heavy metals in freshwater fish near the border.  The figures from Kola GMK, a fully owned subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel, show the increase in sulphur dioxide (SO2) pollution from the plants on Russia’s Murmansk region. In 2013, the emission into the atmosphere from the plant in the town of Nikel was 74,978 tons ofSO2, up from 63,592 in 2012.  It is the regional environmental group Bellona Murmansk that refer to the statistics from Kola GMK at the organization’s portal.  From the plants in Monchegorsk further south on the Kola Peninsula, the pollution increased from 33,325 tons in 2012 to 36,617 tons in 2013.  In addition, Kola GMK has a pellets plant for nickel-ore in Zapolyarny, a few kilometers east of Nikel. According to Rosstat in Murmansk, the total SO2 emission from Kola GMK’s plants in Nikel and Zapolyarny was 104,000 tons in 2012, making the emissions from Zapolyarny some 40,000 tons.  Bellona advisor Larisa Bronder says there is a mismatch between what the company says and what they do. “KolaGMK is constantly talking about the measures taken to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide. However, the official figures show that emissions are increasing each year,” says Larisa Bronder.  Environmental officials on the Norwegian side of the border in the north are worried.  The County Governor of Finnmark’s environmental office is this summer measuring increased levels of heavy metals in freshwater fish catched near the border to Russia. The smelter in Nikel is located only a few kilometers from the border to Norway.  There is more nickel, cobber and mercury in the nature and especially in lakes and sediments in lakes, the officials say to NRK Nordnytt.  Helen Andersen is senior engineer at the County Governor’s office. She says there could be two reasons for the increase. “The reasons for the increase could be changes in the production at the smelters on the Russia side of the border. But, for instance long transported pollutants from China could cause the increase in mercury.“ www.barentsobserver.com