MURMANSK, March 18. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) will invest 2.6 billion rubles ($34.6 million) in upgrade of Kola MMC (Mining and Metallurgical Company, a part of Nornickel) in 2020, Kola MMC’s press service said on Tuesday.

"Kola MMC will receive more than 3,300 pieces of new equipment; the upgrade will be in the company’s all divisions, and Nornickel’s investments in the renovation of assets will make 2.6 billion rubles," the press service said.

Mine trucks and drilling rigs will be bought for the Severny mine in the Murmansk Region’s Zapolyarny, the company said. The nickel electrolysis shop in Monchegorsk (the Murmansk Region) will receive anode cells, new polymer-concrete baths and a large number of pumping units; the sulfuric acid department at the refining shop will use new equipment worth about 48 million rubles ($639,000) to improve the ecology situation.

Nornickel will invest about 30 million rubles ($400,000) in personal gas-analyzing systems for Kola MMC’s staff.

"The company’s upgrade is a priority task for Nornickel," the press service said. "By regular upgrades of equipment, the company assures growing output and safe production."

The Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company is a leading production complex in the Murmansk Region - a major producer of non-ferrous metals, including strategic metals. The company is the world’s biggest nickel refining enterprise and Russia’s only producer of electrolytic cobalt of highest grades. The Kola MMC accounts for 39% of nickel and 42% of cobalt the Norilsk Nickel Company produces. The products are supplied to the domestic market and exported to European countries. Nickel is a basic part of most superalloys - heat-resistant materials used in the aerospace industry for power machines’ parts. Russia’s one of the biggest deposits of nickel containing ores is in the Murmansk Region.

Norilsk Nickel is a diversified mining and metallurgical company, the world’s largest producer of refined nickel and palladium and a leading producer of platinum, cobalt, copper and rhodium. The company also produces gold, silver, iridium, selenium, ruthenium and tellurium. The company’s units are located at the Norilsk Industrial District, on the Kola Peninsula and Chita region in Russia as well as in Finland and South Africa.