Scientists to evaluate nature recovery in Nikel
Ecologists from the University of Moscow have come to the Russian border town of Nikel to study the results of seven year’s efforts to recultivate areas destroyed by pollution from Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company’s smelter.
The scientists from the Faculty of Pedology at Moscow state University will spend three weeks in Nikel. According to Oleg Motsokin, spokesperson at the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company (KGMK), the scientists have come to make an objective evaluation of the work that the Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company has done on cleaning and re-planting of polluted areas, RIA Novosti reports.
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The company has in course of the last seven years replaced soil, fertilized, limed and re-planted areas equivalent to 85 soccer fields, says Mikhail Shkondin, head of KGMKs Department for Environmental Safety. According to him, the ecological situation around the plant has improved. – The recultivation and planting speed up nature’s recovery in the area, he says.
Kola Mining and Metallurgy Company will be spending 2 billion rubles on ecological projects in 2010, says Motsokin. The money will be used to modernize equipment, apply new technologies and continued recultivation of land.
The ecologists from Moscow also plan to arrange a roundtable discussion on ‘Best practices from foreign and Russian companies on recultivation of technogenically polluted areas’. To this discussion the scientists plan to invite Professor Graeme Spiers from the University of Ontario, Canada. He will be presenting results from similar cultivation projects in Sudbury, a place known for its copper and nickel production.
Read also: Discussing modernization of Nikel plant
