Investigators look into waste dump by Norilsk Nickel’s Talnakh

MOSCOW/KRASNOYARSK, Jun 29 (PRIME) -- The Investigative Committee and the Federal Service for Natural Resources Oversight are checking information about dumping technological wastes into the tundra zone by the Talnakh concentrator plant of Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel, they said in statements on June 28.

“Investigators of the Krasnoyarsk Region are checking information about dumping technological wastes into the tundra zone on June 28, 2020. The investigative body has received information that unsanctioned dumping of liquid waste into the tundra zone occurred in the technological zone of the Talnakh concentrator,” the committee said.

A service representative said that its employees were inspecting the site of the dump.

Olga Shamanskaya, an official representative of the Investigative Committee’s main directorate for the Krasnoyarsk Region and the republic of Khakasia, told PRIME that water waste was dumped without permit into a forest near a dam. The authorities are inspecting the site and taking samples, she said.

Norilsk Nickel said in a statement that the Talnakh concentrator pumped purified technical water from a settling pond into the nearby region to prevent a possible overflow in gross violation of exploitation regulations, and all responsible managers have already been suspended from their duties. The company has launched an internal investigation, and is cooperating with the authorities, Norilsk Nickel said.