Nornickel disputes $2bn Arctic damages claim

Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, said on Wednesday that it was committed to fully cover the cost of remediation of the environmental impact of the recent fuel spill in the Arctic, but that it disagreed with the amount that Russian watchdog Rosprirodnadzor calculated.

The federal service for natural resource management said this week that the diesel spill from a tank owned by Nornickel in May caused 148-billion rubles (about $2-billion) of damage in the Arctic.

Nornickel said Rosprirodnadzor calculated damages caused to water bodies and soil based on certain assumptions, which distorted the estimates.