MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. The Affordable Rental Housing in the Far Eastern Federal District program should be available further in the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone, Nornickel's Vice President Andrey Grachev said at a meeting of the State Council's commission on the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic.
The Far East's all eleven districts participate in the Affordable Rental Housing in the Far Eastern Federal District program, where the federal budget compensates for a third part of the rent, and another third part is reimbursed by the regional budget. Apartments in such houses will be finished and furnished according to the DOM.RF quality standards.
"In implementing this program (Sulfur Program - TASS), we have employed up to 4,000 specialists from the "mainland." They built a shift town, and then dismantled it. We are aware of a program that Ministry for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic has developed - it is dubbed Affordable Rental Housing in the Far Eastern Federal District, and to us, of course, this program is an example for the Arctic Zone. It would be very positive to extend rental housing across the Arctic Zone, because it would solve many production problems," the company's representative said, adding businesses were interested in using in the Arctic the Far Eastern Federal District's development practices.
The organization of backbone cities in the Arctic implies, in addition to production facilities, high social and environmental standards, and infrastructure development, he continued. The company has been implementing the Sulfur Program to solve environmental problems and to cut emissions. Development of Norilsk's infrastructures and work to raise social standards continue under a large-scale renovation program, where investments to 2035 will make 120 billion rubles ($$1.2 billion). Additionally, in the regions of Nornickel's presence - in the Murmansk Region and in the Krasnoyarsk Region's north - the company is creating a network of modern medical institutions for employees and their families to receive additional medical services.
About Sulfur Program
The Sulfur Program's technologies are assumed to capture at least 99% of sulfur dioxide at the main smelting units, where they will be used, and they take into account peculiarities of the Norilsk Industrial District's' ore base, the used pyrometallurgical processes, as well Norilsk's logistical limitations (a lack of external railway, a limited navigation period on the Yenisei River, the inter-navigation period where only air traffic is possible, and the Northern Sea Route's logistics). Sulfuric acid from sulfur dioxide will be further neutralized by limestone to produce gypsum.
Norilsk is a polar city in the Krasnoyarsk Region's north. The population is 176,000 people (the region's second most populous city). The Norilsk Nickel Company's Polar Division is the city-forming enterprise. Norilsk produces about 20% of the world's high-grade nickel. Norilsk Nickel is a diversified mining and metallurgical company, the world's largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel.