Russia (bbabo.net), - The mining and metals giant reaffirmed its status as a company with a very high level of social responsibility, as well as a strong commitment to the green agenda.
According to IFRS financial statements published on February 10, MMC Norilsk Nickel doubled spending on social projects last year. Another 500 million were added to the permanent part of half a billion dollars.
These funds are reserved for the renovation of Norilsk, which is unprecedented in scale, until 2035. Its total budget is determined by a four-party agreement between Norilsk Nickel, the Ministry for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic of the Russian Federation, the government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the polar municipality in the amount of 120 billion rubles. Approximately two-thirds of them are allocated by Norilsk Nickel.
The company plans to spend 46 billion rubles on the reconstruction of housing, 19 billion rubles on the renewal of communal and social infrastructure, 12 billion rubles on improving security, and another three billion rubles will be spent on the resettlement of citizens.
In addition, by 2025, Norilsk Nickel will allocate $17 million to finance a program to support the indigenous peoples of the North.
At the same time, the company continues to fulfill its obligations under agreements with the governments of the regions where it operates. In the Trans-Baikal Territory, 23 million dollars are provided for the construction and development of industrial, social and other infrastructure until 2026, 26 million dollars for the socio-economic development of the Murmansk region, and 67 million dollars for investments in infrastructure projects in the Krasnoyarsk Territory until 2028.
40 billion rubles - the total budget of the ten-year program "Clean Norilsk", an integral part of the federal project "Clean Arctic"
The volume of social spending in 2022, according to experts from Norilsk Nickel, will remain at last year's level, but they do not take into account one-time allocations for the reconstruction of Norilsk.
Commenting on the financial results, Vladimir Potanin, President of Norilsk Nickel, stressed that 2021 has become a year of new challenges for the company that it has managed to overcome. After industrial incidents, the work of two mines and the Norilsk concentrator was successfully restored. After the economic recession of 2020 caused by the coronavirus epidemic, the global economy revived, and consumption of Norilsk Nickel products rapidly increased.
Demand for the metals needed to transition to a green economy has also increased. And in their production, the company - and, in terms of not only cost, but also the smallest carbon footprint in the industry - is one of the world leaders.
Last year, Norilsk Nickel's revenue grew by 15 percent to $17.9 billion, investments grew by almost 60 percent, reaching a record $2.8 billion in accordance with the management's forecast.
Investments in the modernization, renewal of equipment and fixed assets were significantly increased, including in energy infrastructure to improve industrial safety and energy efficiency.
Funding for the company's environmental strategy also tripled to more than $500 million.
- After the closure of the smelter and metallurgical shops on the Kola Peninsula, sulfur dioxide emissions decreased by 90 percent compared to 2015 - more than planned. In the Norilsk division, they decreased by 14 percent, and in 2023, after the first phase of the sulfur program, which we expect to complete by the end of this year, they will decrease by 45 percent, the head of the company summed up.
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