[concern] Kola MMC, owned by Nornickel, plans to close the high nickel matte smelter in Nikel town.

Recently, NORNICKEL announced that Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel and a major producer of platinum and copper, is shutting down a smelter in the town of Nikel in the Murmansk region of Russia. This is the company's oldest production facility to date. Its closure is Nonick's comprehensive environmental plan aimed at significantly reducing the environmental impact of all production sites. With the closure of the plant, harmful gas emissions from the atmosphere along the Russian-Norwegian border will stop.

Vladimir Potanin (Vladimir Potanin), president of Noni, said: "Today will be a symbolic event-the melting of the 'last ladle', after which the smelter will be closed. For Nornickel, this is a historic event. Following the closure of Nikel smelting facilities, we are modernizing Monchegorsk's metallurgical production, including the construction of new and state-of-the-art facilities. It is important for us to ensure that our own production meets modern requirements. Nornickel produces goods that are in high demand and are good for the economy of the future-our metals are used in batteries and automotive catalysts. This allows us to say that on the map of our country and on the map of the world, there is an environmentally advanced company that also produces goods for the green economy. "

Andre Chibis (Andrey Chibis), governor of Murmansk, said: "the company's decision to close the smelter is undoubtedly a coercive measure aimed at reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere. But on the whole, this is the reconfiguration of the production facilities of Coca-Cola Mining and Metallurgical Company, the modernization transformation, the implementation of modern technology and the increase in the production of the company's main products in the region. The initial most important task is to consider the needs of the employees here. Take all possible measures to adapt the staff of the store to society. Workers who want to stay in the company are offered jobs in other departments. For those who decide to try to start a business, it creates a good starting condition. "

Nornickel made the decision to close the smelter in November 2019. The closure will completely eliminate sulfur dioxide emissions from cross-border areas with Norway. As a result of the implementation of the programme, it is planned to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Coke MMC will grow by 50 per cent by 2020 and 85 per cent by 2021. After the shutdown, customer service and cleanup services will continue to run in the workshop. Within one year after the closure, the buildings of the workshop will be sealed and prepared: they will be cleaned up, and materials containing non-ferrous metals will be collected and sent for recycling.

If the choice of industrial land can be found, the industrial land can be retained. Nornickel supports competition among investors who are willing to implement industrial or cultural commercial projects in vacated smelters. The prerequisites are the ecological transformation of industrial areas, the creation of green production facilities and the creation of new jobs. The winning project was the establishment of a metallurgical micro-mill for the production of grinding balls and long product (LLC Sirius). Nornickel plans to support the winners' projects in the form of consulting assistance, promising to buy back some products, offering preferential terms and reducing tariffs on materials and technical resources.

With the closure of the smelter, the production chain will be adjusted: concentrates from the Zapolyarny concentrator will be transported to the concentrate transportation center, where they will be provided to consumers. The technical transformation of the plant and the parallel construction of concentrate loading facilities are important parts of the Nornickel environmental protection project.

A key aspect of the decision to close the smelter is support for workshop staff. The company cited the successful closure of its nickel plant in Norilsk in 2016 as an example. Nornickel provides social security for store employees: facilitate the transfer of business to other companies, retraining and pension plans. Of the 660 employees in the smelter, 72% chose to continue to work in the company department. Most of them have already been employed and the employment process for the rest will be completed soon. The company will spend 900 million roubles on a set of measures and social programs for smelter employees between 2020 and 2022.

Another important issue is the all-round development of the region after the shutdown. In cooperation with regional and municipal authorities, the company has developed a development strategy for the Pechenga district, which includes a fundamentally different approach to territorial development. To implement the strategy, the company assumed the responsibility of attracting new businesses and social entrepreneurs to the region. In 2020, a competition was held among entrepreneurs, and as a result, 11 entrepreneurs will receive interest-free loans from Nornickel for the development of business projects, with a total borrowing of 185 million rubles. The new business is expected to open as early as 2021, which will create 145 new jobs in the region.

It is reported that the smelter in Nicole Town is the oldest metallurgical facility in Kola MMC. In the past 74 years, the plant has smelted 61.8 million tons of nickel-containing raw materials and produced more than 2.4 million tons of high-grade frosted nickel.

Throughout history, the smelting workshop has been modernized and expanded several times. In the 1960s, powerful ore thermoelectric furnaces, converters and pilot plants for baking pellets were put into operation in smelting plants. In the 1970s, the converter slag discharge furnace was put into use and a sulphuric acid plant was built.

In 1991, Nike (Nikel) 's smelter became one of the largest in the industry. It processes 1.33 million tons of ore raw materials every year and produces 100000 tons of advanced frosting.

In 1998, the smelter became part of the newly established Kola MMC. As part of the smelter emission reduction plan, many measures have been taken: automatic charging has been introduced into the ore hot furnace and a frequency converter has been installed at the frequency converter to control the exhaust fan. In 2013, the workshop saw the construction of a new casting, a special platform for the installation of moulds for pouring high-grade abrasive into it. In 2016, the No. 5 submerged arc furnace in the workshop was overhauled.