MURMANSK, October 18. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) in developing of a lithium ore deposit in the Murmansk Region may use the procedure of a Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), which the company has used on the Taimyr Peninsula (the Krasnoyarsk Region) during a program to relocate residents of the Tukhard village, Chairman of Nornickel's Board of Directors Anrey Bugrov told reporters.

Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a specific right that pertains to indigenous peoples and is recognized in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). It allows them to give or withhold consent to a project that may affect them or their territories.

The Kolmozero deposit is located in the Murmansk Region's Lovozero District. The deposit's reserves make 18.9% of lithium ores in the Russia.

"The lithium deposit means a new situation, since the Lovozero District is a place where the Saami people have been living traditionally, and there are located their historically significant places, sacred areas, natural objects, which are important for them, there are deer migration routes there," he said at a forum on public-private partnership in sustainable development of indigenous peoples. "We, in compliance with our policies, probably will use the procedure of free, prior and informed consent from the community regarding the implementation of this project."

All involved parties will look into the project in search for compromises in developing the deposit without damaging the Murmansk Region's indigenous peoples, he continued. The company has informed the North's low-numbered indigenous peoples about the plans, Nornickel's Vice President on federal and regional programs, Andrey Grachev added.

"In June, we informed the Saami on this project, and jointly with Rosatom we will continue this work," he said. "We will collect all the necessary information, will conduct sociology and ethnography studies, we are experienced in this, - in order to mind all the aspects and 'do no harm', as surgeons say. This is the key approach. We have contacted the Saami, and active work with their representatives is underway."

Experience of Taimyr's Tukhard

In the aspiration to find compromises with the North's low-numbered indigenous peoples regarding the lithium deposit's development in the Murmansk Region, Nornickel may use the experience of relations with the local residents in Tukhard. Tukhard was founded in the 1970s as a town for construction workers employed with a natural gas producer NorilskGazprom, a Nornickel subsidiary. Later on, the town attracted the Nenets, the Taimyr's indigenous peoples. The settlement ended up located in the sanitary protection zone, where permanent residence is outlawed.

"The options were - either we remove the production facilities from there, or we offer an alternative to the people in Tukhard," Grachev said. "We are the first company in the Arctic Zone to use FPIC procedure. After three general meetings, the people picked a new place to live, and we will build a new modern Tukhard village for them."

In October, 2021, Nornickel launched the free, prior and informed consent procedure regarding the relocation and development of the Tukhard village. Though this practice is not listed in the Russian law, it complies fully with responsibility standards of the Russian Arctic Zone's residents and is based on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the company said.

Tukhard's head of the indigenous people's council Igor Yamkin told TASS the decision to build a new village had been supported by the majority, including nomads who live in the tundra near the village and are engaged in reindeer husbandry, or those engaged in fishing and wild plants collecting. "The village is not big - about 50-60 houses, where about 1,000 people live. Their present living conditions have pushed them to agree a new settlement should be built. Houses are falling apart, skewed. The village was built back in the 1970s, and since then those wooden houses have got shabby," he said.

The new village will be built two kilometers from the old one. The construction will begin in summer, 2023, to be completed by 2026. New Tukhard will be closer to the river, which is important for the indigenous peoples engaged in traditional fishing. "The people will remain in the old houses for the time being while the construction continues. When everything is ready in the new place, we will move," he said.

About forum

The forum on public-private partnership in sphere of indigenous people's sustainable development in the framework of Russia's chairing role at the Arctic Council was held in Murmansk in mid-October. The event's organizers were the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, the Foreign Ministry, and the Nornickel Company, the charity foundation for support of low-numbered indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East.