Russian miner Nornickel has shut down its Kola MMC plant at the Russian border with Norway and Finland for modernization and to double its copper production to 150,000mt per annum.
Moving forward, the company aims towards greener operations at the plant and will process all its concentrates at the Norilsk division to be converted to finished products. The effort will help the firm reduce sulphur dioxide emission by 85pc this year compared to 2015, it stated.
As soon as the shop shuts, the firm plans to start the cleaning operations at the production facility which will go on until the end of this year, and then start dismantling the production facilities by next year.
The closure of the shop is expected to affect about 700 employees but the firm plans to deploys RUB800mn ($10mn) on targeted programs for the employees.
($1=RUB76.22)