Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine

(full name, A. P. Zaveniagin Noril’sk Mining and Metallurgical Combine), an enterprise of nonferrous metallurgy of the USSR located in Noril’sk, Krasnoiarsk Krai, RSFSR. The combine includes mining, concentration, metallurgical, transportation, power-engineering, construction, and mechanical repair enterprises; a design institute; a research complex; a computer center; the Dudinka-Noril’sk-Talnakh railroad; and the port of Dudinka on the Enisei River, with berths for oceangoing and river vessels. The combine can draw on considerable reserves of natural gas and a unique supply of raw materials for production of nonferrous metals (nickel, cobalt, copper, and so on). The combine uses locally available raw materials for the manufacture of reinforced concrete, wall panels, bricks, and cement.

Construction of the combine began in 1935. The first coal and ore mines began operation in 1936. The discovery of very rich deposits of nickel and copper in the area of Talnakh (in 1960) provided the combine with a stable, long-lasting supply of raw materials. In 1965 the Maiak mine was excavated, followed in 1971 by the Komsomol’skii mine. In 1974 the Oktiabr’skii mine was put into operation. Ore is usually extracted by underground mining. At the same time, further modernization of the metallurgical and concentration plants is taking place. The processes of extractional separation of heavy nonferrous metals from solutions and production of high-purity cobalt were adopted for the first time in the USSR at the Norils’k combine. In 1966 a group of the combine’s workers was awarded the Lenin Prize for their work in introducing pile foundations for industrial, civil, and residential structures under conditions of permanently frozen soil and a harsh climate. The State Seal of Quality was awarded to the combine’s N-l nickel and K-0 copper in 1973.

The enterprises of the Noril’sk combine have high-output equipment, such as BASh-250 milling cutters, 150-ton electric locomotives, dump trucks with a capacity of 100 tons, and arctic models of the EKG-8 excavator. High-powered high-capacity equipment has been adopted at opencut mine workings. The total production of the combine in 1973 exceeded the 1950 level by a factor of 8.5. The combine was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1965.