Ecology of Norilsk

Norilsk is considered to be a city with an unfavorable environmental situation. The city-forming enterprise Norilnickel and the city administration pay special attention to this issue, implementing a set of measures to improve the environment in the territory.

So in June 2016, the Nickel Plant was closed, which allowed to stop annual emissions of pollutants in the amount of about 400 thousand tons.

A large-scale project to modernize the Talnakh concentration plant was also completed. The capacity of the enterprise increased by more than 30% from 7.6 to 10.2 million tons of ore per year, while higher production indicators were achieved, and the goal of modernization was to reduce the negative impact on the environment by increasing the extraction of sulfur in the tailings.

In 2018, the Sulfur Project, the largest environmental event of Norilsk Nickel, which has no analogues in the world, was launched and is being implemented in Norilsk. Its goal is to reduce total sulfur dioxide emissions by 75% by 2023. The construction of sulfur-rich gas capture plants at the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant, the production of sulfuric acid and its subsequent neutralization with limestone to produce gypsum have been launched. Sulfur recovery facilities will also be reconstructed at the Copper Plant.

In addition, as part of the Sulfur Project, conversion and anode smelting will be transferred from the Copper Plant to the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant. As a result, the most dirty production facilities of the Copper Plant will be removed from Norilsk, all the pyrometallurgical facilities of the Polar Division will be concentrated at the Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant, which at this point will have effective sulfur recovery facilities. The total cost of capital investments in the Sulfur Project is estimated at around $ 2.5 billion.

In the last 30 years, emissions have been reduced due to the modernization of treatment facilities, and due to the reduction of certain types of production. In 2018, the reconstruction of the high chimney removal system of waste bottom gases of the Copper Plant was completed. The project aims to solve the problem of minimizing the impact of enterprise emissions using a system for collecting exhaust and suction gases generated in the smelter. Currently, it is the bottom gases that make a significant contribution to the air pollution of the factory territory and the city, and everything is done to level and reduce their output.