Nornickel signs support package with indigenous peoples. 28th September 2020.

...Representing over 90% of the indigenous population in the Russian North, the organisations signed with Nornickel a “comprehensive” support package totalling RUB2bn ($25.42m) over five years. The programme will run until 2024 and includes a range of initiatives aimed at the support of the traditional activities of indigenous peoples as well as environmental protection. The package will also be used to fund housing, medicine, infrastructure, tourism, and educational and cultural projects.

Nornickel said the programme was developed following an ethnographic expedition carried out in the Peninsula this summer....Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation president Grigory Ledkov welcomed Nornickel’s support, saying: “This agreement can serve as an example for other companies, as it emphasizes the importance of preserving the habitat of indigenous people and protecting our values and traditions. The full-scale ethnographic expedition to hear the opinions of indigenous populations has already become a huge step in the right direction and will serve as a model for future projects of this kind.....”

However, Nornickel has been subject to criticism for its activities in the region, including for the Norilsk oil spill earlier this year. In May, a fuel storage tank at Norilsk-Taimyr Energy’s Thermal Power Plant No.2 – owned by Nornickel – failed, and flooded local rivers with more than 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil. The incident was declared a national emergency and is the second-largest oil spill in modern Russian history. Officials have warned that it will take years to clean up the oil spill and the full extent of environmental damage is not yet known.

Earlier this month, Aboriginal Forum, which describes itself as a network of independent experts, activists, leaders and organisations of Russian indigenous peoples, wrote a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk requesting that his company does not purchase nickel or other materials for its batteries from Nornickel until the company conducts a full and independent assessment of the environmental damage of mining for nickel and other metals in Russia’s Taymyr Peninsula and Murmansk Oblast...

Further tarnishing Nornickel’s reputation is a report in The Moscow Times, which identified Nornickel as accounting for more than half of the sulphur dioxide emissions in Russia...