9/28/20
The Nornickel mining and metallurgical company supplies metals to 37 countries, where they are used in the production of electric cars, electricity stations and solar panels. But in the process of extracting all these environmentally valuable metals, Nornickel systemically pollutes the surrounding nature with sulfur dioxide (SO2). Toxic in high doses, this gas causes choking, coughing, pulmonary edema, and (according to the WHO) increases the frequency of respiratory tract diseases. Sulfur dioxide makes up 98% of all the company’s emissions (according to data from Nornickel itself). It is formed during the processing of sulfide ores, in which metals are combined with sulfur. Emissions amount to around 2 million tons per year — that is, more than half of all sulfur dioxide emissions in Russia (3.6 million tons in 2018, according to a state report by the Ministry of Natural Resources), or twice the total amount of emissions from the United States, (according to 2018
data from Greenpeace).The factories in Norilsk are the world’s largest stationary source of man-made sulfur dioxide, according to Greenpeace data. “Don’t believe them when they try to convince you that it’s technologically impossible to ensure the cleanliness of emissions from nickel production,” a Finnish diplomat told Russian journalists several years ago. This diplomat hailed originally from the town of Harjavalta, where there was also a nickel plant. Under pressure from local residents and the authorities, the firm rolled out a new emissions system in the mid 1990s which
captures 99% of all sulfuric emissions from the plant.
www.themoscowtimes.com