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Nornickel to pour $402 mln into upgrading production in Murmansk Region

The Norilsk Nickel Company will invest more than $402 million in modernization of its industrial facilities on the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk Region

ST. PETERSBURG, May 25. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company will invest more than 25 billion rubles ($402 million) to 2023 in modernization of its industrial facilities on the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk Region. The company’s Vice President Elena Bezdenezhnykh and the region’s Governor Marina Kovtun inked an agreement on the project on sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

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"Our company will invest in the project of restructuring and modernization of industrial facilities on the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk Region more than 25 billion rubles," the company’s vice president said during the agreement signing. "Thus, we shall cut emissions, develop the nickel refining platform in Monchegorsk and will raise the enterprise’s efficiency by cutting operational expenses."

The project’s term is to 2023, and the company will enter a special investment contract with the Murmansk Region’s government.

"Nornickel is a key taxpayer and employer in the region, and the company’s development is in our interests," Governor Kovtun said. "In compliance with our investment legislation, the company will enjoy benefits in property and profit taxes, while we shall benefit from kept jobs, from higher ecology standards and labor productivity, this, of course, will favor our cities."

Press service of the Murmansk Region’s government told TASS the authorities signed at the form an agreement with the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company (Kola MMC, a part of Nornickel), under which the region will offer to the company special conditions for profit and property taxes in exchange to the company’s project to modernize its industrial facilities.

"The document reads that the company will receive state support in the form of special rates for property and profit taxes," the press service said. "This support would make 2.6 billion rubles ($41 million)."

Under the contract, Kola MMC will invest about 25.7 billion rubles in the production reconfiguration, and within six years will build up payments to the region’s consolidated budget by 6 billion rubles ($96 million), it will support high level of wages. The project will favor cutting the ecology effect on the regional nature.

About the forum

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is working from May 24 to May 26. TASS is the event’s information partner and the photo-host agency.

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