NOVO-OGAREVO, December 4 /TASS/. Norilsk Nickel will allocate 150 bln rubles ($2.5 bln) to tackle environmental issues of the city of Norilsk in Russia’s Arctic region, Vladimir Potanin, the head of Norilsk Nickel, said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We will invest about 150 billion rubles in Norilsk alone to solve this [environmental] problem," Potanin said.

According to him, the volume of harmful emissions in Norilsk was reduced by 35%.

"We managed to reduce emissions by 35% within the city of Norilsk," he said.

According to Potanin, this was done as part of the first stage of the company's environmental project. At the second stage, by 2023, emissions of sulfur dioxide in the city will be reduced by 75%.

He also said that the company had ensured high-speed broadband Internet connection in Norilsk, which will significantly improve the quality of life of citizens.

Speaking about the company’s production plans Potanin said he expects that the Bystrinsky ore mining and dressing plant will reach full capacity in 2019.

"I hope that we will reach full capacity in 2019," he said noting that the plant extract and process more than 10 million tonnes of raw materials a year.

"This is the largest project in the industry since the time of the Soviet Union, which is not only important for our company as a component of long-term sustainable development, but this project will also have a very serious positive impact on the economic situation in the region [the Trans-Baikal Territory]," the president of Norilsk Nickel said.

In 2017, the company plans to produce 206,000-211,000 tonnes of nickel, 377,000-387,000 tonnes of copper, 2.64-2.73 million ounces of palladium and 581,000-645,000 ounces of platinum.

Norilsk Nickel is a Russian diversified mining and metals company, the globally largest producer of nickel and palladium and the major producer of platinum, cobalt, copper, and rhodium. The also produces gold, silver, iridium, osmium, selenium, ruthenium, and tellurium.