Untitled - PRIME Gold

66NORILSK NICKEL • ANNUAL REPORT •200567••• Commitment to environmental protection8.8In 2005, the Group performed the following activities in accordancewith the key provisions of the Group's EnvironmentalPolicy related to:• gradual reduction of pollutant emissions into the atmosphere;• consistent reduction of polluted wastewater discharge towater bodies; and• improvement of waste disposal sites in order to decreaseenvironmental impact.Taimyr PeninsulaIn 2005, the Group completed a number of major investmentprojects aimed at reducing atmospheric emission of pollutants,as part of the long-term production upgrade program.The key environmental result of the reconstruction and launchof the start-up complexes of the production lines of flashsmelters No. 1 and 2 at Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant, in additionto the increased efficiency of the gas purification equipment,is the creation of the ability for closing down the obsoletepyrometallurgic facilities at the Nickel Plant, which werea source of lean sulfur containing gases that were notreclaimable.In order to increase the productivity of the Copper Plant, theGroup completed reconstruction of production line No. 1 forthe production of elemental sulfur from rich gases from theVanyukov furnaces – a waste heat boiler and a catalyst wereinstalled. When the line reaches design capacity, they willreclaim additional amounts of gases and will reduce dioxideemission by 100 thousand tonnes per year.In 2005, the Gipronickel Institute completed the design workfor the reconstruction of production line No. 2 for sulfur productionat the Copper Plant; the implementation of this projectwithin the next several years will reduce sulfur dioxideemission in the atmosphere by the Copper Plant by 40% ascompared to the emission in 2005.In 2005, the Group increased the rate of reclamation fromwaste gases of the metallurgical facilities by 4.1% (by 7.2%at the Copper plant) as compared to the previous year. Sulfurdioxide emission per tonne of base metal produced decreasedby 3.8%. Total atmospheric emissions of pollutants werereduced by 2.9% as compared to 2004 (with the total emissionsof sulfur dioxide down by 2.8% and hard elements by5.0%). The efficiency of the operation of the gas and dustpurification facilities for the overall Taimyr Peninsula increasedto 98.96% (as compared to 98.95% in 2004).MMC NORILSK NICKEL NOT INCLUDINGGOLD MINING ASSETS (POLUS)8