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'Norilsk' () is a major city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It obtained city status in 1953. It is the northernmost city in Siberia and the world's second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle. Norilsk and Yakutsk are the only large cities in the continuous permafrost zone. Norilsk is also the northernmost city with a population over 100,000 on the planet. Population: 133,436 (2004 est.); 134,832 (2002 Census). MMC Norilsk Nickel, a mining company, is the principal employer in the Norilsk area. The city is served by Norilsk Alykel Airport and Norilsk Valek Airfield. Due to the intense mining, the city is one of the 10 most polluted cities in the world. The most northern mosque in the world is located in Norilsk.

Contents

History

Norilsk–Talnakh nickel deposits

Environment

Pollution problems

Climate

Norilsk in popular culture

External links

References

History

The settlement of Norilsk was founded by the end of 1920s; however, the official date of founding is traditionally set to 1935, when Norilsk was expanded as a settlement for the Norilsk mining-metallurgic complex and became the center of the Norillag system of GULAG labor camps. It was granted the status of urban settlement in 1939.
Norilsk, located between the West Siberian Plain and Central Siberian Plateau at the foot of the 1,700-metre-high Putoran Mountains, is situated on some of the largest nickel deposits on Earth. Consequently, mining and smelting ore are the major industries. Norilsk is the center of a region where nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, and coal are mined. Mineral deposits in the Siberian Craton had been known for two centuries before Norilsk was founded, but mining began only in 1939, when the buried portions of the Norilsk–Talnakh intrusions were found beneath mountainous terrain.
Talnakh is the major mine/enrichment site now from where an enriched ore emulsion is pumped to Norilsk metallurgy plants.
To support the new city a railway to port Dudinka on the Yenisei River was established. From this port enriched nickel and copper are transported to Murmansk by sea and further on to the Monchegorsk enrichment plant on Kola peninsula, European Russia, more precious content goes up the river to Kransnoyarsk, all during the summer only. Dudinka port is closed and dismantled during spring's ice barrier floods of up to 20m in late May. This is a typical spring occurrence of all Siberian rivers.
Another railway was under construction from European coal city Vorkuta via the Salekhard/river Ob where construction stopped after Stalin died.
According to the archives of Norillag, 16,806 prisoners died in Norilsk under the conditions of forced labor, starvation, and intense cold throughout the existence of the camp (1935–1956) [1]. Fatalities were especially high during the war years of 1942–1944 when food supplies were particularly scarce. The prisoners organised a revolt in 1953, suppressed by the police. Unknown but significant numbers of prisoners continued to serve and die in the mines until around 1979. Norilsk–Talknakh continues to be a dangerous mine to work in; according to the mining company, there were 2.4 accidents per thousand workers in 2005.
In 2001, Norilsk was decreed a closed city for foreigners, with travel permits required for Russian citizens as well. This is likely because of the sensitive nature of the nickel-platinum-palladium-copper mining, and the ICBM missile silos nestled in the Putoran Mountains nearby. The economic reason is to prevent the intrusion of esp. Caucasian dealers of any kind into this relatively rich city.
The city is also the nearest to the famous Popigai crater.

Norilsk–Talnakh nickel deposits

The nickel deposits of Norilsk-Talnakh are the largest nickel-copper-palladium deposits in the world. The deposit was formed 250 million years ago during the eruption of the Siberian Traps igneous province (STIP). The STIP erupted over one million cubic kilometres of lava, a large portion of it through a series of flat-lying lava conduits lying below Norilsk and the Talnakh Mountains.
The ore was formed when the erupting magma became saturated in sulfur, forming globules of pentlandite, chalcopyrite, and other sulfides. These sulfides were then "washed" by the continuing torrent of erupting magma, and upgraded their tenor with nickel, copper, platinum, and palladium.^[1]
The current resource known for these mineralised intrusion exceeds 1.8 billion tons. MMC Norilsk Nickel, headquartered in Moscow, is the principle mining operator in Norilsk-Talnakh. The ore is mined underground via several shafts, and a decline. The ore deposits are currently being extracted at >1,200 m below ground. The ore deposits are drilled from the surface.
The deposits are being explored by a Russian Government-controlled company. The company is known to be using electromagnetic field geophysics, with loops on surface which are over 1,000 m on a side. They are conclusively able to image the conductive nickel ore at depths in excess of 1,800 m.

Environment

Pollution problems

The nickel ore is smelted on site at Norilsk. The smelting is directly responsible for severe pollution, generally acid rain and smog. By some estimates, 1 percent of the entire global emissions of sulfur dioxide comes from this one city. Heavy metal pollution near Norilsk is so severe that it is now economically feasible to mine the soil, which has been polluted so severely that it has economic grades of platinum and palladium. For One Business, Polluted Clouds Have Silvery Linings Andrew E. Kramer
The Blacksmith Institute^[2] included Norilsk in its list of the ten most polluted places on Earth. They cite air pollution by particulates (including radioisotopes strontium-90, and caesium-137 and heavy metals nickel, copper, cobalt, lead and selenium) and by gases (such as nitrogen and carbon oxides, sulfur dioxide, phenols and hydrogen sulfide).
According to an article published by BBC News on 5th April 2007, the company accepted responsibility for what had happened to the forests, but insisted they were taking action to cut the pollution. For the period up to 2015-2020 the company expects to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by approximately two-thirds, but admits it is hard to guarantee this pace of reduction because they are still developing the technology.

Climate

Norilsk has an extremely harsh climate. Average temperature is approximately −10 degrees Celsius, temperatures as low as −58 degrees have been recorded. The city is covered with snow for about 250–270 days a year, with snow storms for about 110–130 days. The polar night lasts from December through mid-January, so that Norilsk inhabitants do not see the sun at all for about six weeks.

Norilsk in popular culture

Although not actually having been filmed in Norilsk, the city is depicted in the 1985 film White Nights, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. During the opening moments of the film, Baryshnikov's character, a Soviet defector, is on a passenger plane that crash lands at "Norilsk Air Base."
Martin Amis' 2007 novel ''House of Meetings'' takes place in part at a Gulag labor camp based on Norilsk.

External links

★ MMC Norilsk Nickel, in English

★ Norilsk portal

★ Satellite picture by Google Maps

References

★ Obshhestvo "Memorial", Regional Branch "Siberia": Norilskaya golgofa. Krasnoyarsk: Izd-vo "Klaretianum", 2002 [2].

★ Noril'sk, Northeast Siberia
1. http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of02-074/Resource_Geology/Resource_Geology.pdf Gerald K. Czamanske et. al., ''Petrographic and Geochemical Characterization of Ore-bearing Intrusions of the Noril'sk type, Siberia; With Discussion of Their Origin'', U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-74 (91 page PDF file)
2. Blacksmith Institute - accessed 18-10-06.