Nornickel is playing an important role in the Russian economy and has a strong impact on the social and economic life in its operating regions. With its enterprises located mostly in single‑industry towns, Nornickel seeks to foster a favourable social climate and create a comfortable urban environment, providing its employees and their family members with ample opportunities for creative pursuits and self‑fulfilment.
To this end, Nornickel maintains partnerships with its operating regions, whereby all stakeholders collaborate on the development and implementation of social programmes.
The harsh climate faced by Nornickel employees in life and at work, the remoteness of the Company’s key industrial facilities, and the increasing competition for human capital across the industry call for a highly effective, human‑centred social policy that would promote Nornickel’s reputation as an employer of choice.
Support for indigenous peoples
Nornickel uses a comprehensive approach to engagements with indigenous peoples, consistently scaling related support programmes. They cover Nenets, Dolgans, Nganasans, Evenks, and Enets on the Taimyr Peninsula, and Sámi, Nenets, and Komi in the Murmansk Region.
The Company contributes to preserving ethnic communities, their traditional lifestyles, and indigenous trades. Engagement with indigenous peoples living within the Company’s footprint is driven by respect for their rights, indigenous culture, and historical heritage. Nornickel maintains a mutually beneficial dialogue with indigenous peoples, recognises its responsibility for ensuring their well‑being, and encourages careful attitudes towards indigenous habitats.
The Company’s commitments and key principles of engaging with indigenous peoples are set out in its Indigenous Rights Policy, which reiterates, inter alia, its commitment to implement free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for indigenous peoples where applicable, according to the standards and recommendations of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM).
Nornickel’s metals and mining assets are located outside ancestral lands of indigenous peoples. The Company’s voluntary commitments towards the indigenous peoples of Taimyr are formalised by agreements and minutes of meetings with representatives of indigenous family communities.
For instance, Nornickel, Wowhaus architectural bureau, and the Norilsk Development Agency have teamed up to hold a public consultation with Tukhard residents (Taimyr) focussed on the new settlement’s master plan and house plans. The consultation was part of a process to obtain FPIC for any changes from affected indigenous peoples, held in line with the UN principles. During the discussion, comments and suggestions of Tukhard residents were taken into account.
Nornickel operates a programme to support and develop the indigenous peoples of Taimyr. The programme’s terms are detailed in the quadripartite agreement on engagement and cooperation for 2020–2024, with allocated funds exceeding RUB 2 billion.
The Company supports the sustainable development of indigenous peoples, involving them in the efforts to enhance their quality of life, preserve indigenous habitats, improve infrastructure, facilitate traditional economic activities, and increase access to healthcare, education, culture, sports, and tourism services.
In 2023, a key programme highlight was the World of Taimyr contest aimed at addressing local challenges and fostering the sustainable development of indigenous territories. Only indigenous participants and non‑profit organisations acting in the interests of indigenous peoples were eligible for participation in the contest. The winners started implementing their projects in June 2023 and are expected to complete them in November 2024. A total of 18 social‑impact projects received the grants totalling RUB 52.8 million.
The Indigenous Communities Coordination Council, created at the initiative of indigenous peoples, operates in the Norilsk Division to monitor the programme’s implementation. A total of 58 indigenous family communities are represented in the Council to provide public oversight for the programme as well as to ensure, through voting, fair allocation of extra funds for strengthening the communities’ infrastructure, helping them prepare for autumn and winter hunting and fishing seasons, and fostering indigenous culture and traditional economic activities (RUB 100 million on an annual basis).
To handle routine matters and coordinate engagement with indigenous peoples, a department was set up within the Norilsk Division, responsible for engagement with indigenous peoples of Taymyr and staffed with the right level of indigenous talent.
In 2021–2023, local educational institutions organised community service activities for high school students across local communities; the Five Hunters game was published; and offline translators into indigenous languages, unique in Russia, were developed. Façades of 75 homes were heat‑insulated at the villages of Popigay and Zhdanikha; 30 thousand refractory bricks were delivered for the repair of heating stoves at eight settlements within the Khatanga rural municipality; premises were repaired in the Community Centre at the Khantayskoe Ozero; and repair materials were acquired for the Volochanka and Ust‑Avam settlements.
Nornickel supported the International Decade of Indigenous Languages started in 2022. Initiatives run by the Company on the Taimyr Peninsula in 2023 aimed at preserving and promoting indigenous culture. They included the Nomad Camp festival, youth forums, a folklore festival, and a project to create language nests. The first ever literary competition in indigenous languages of Taimyr, Voice of the North, was held during the year.
In 2023, the Company spent close to RUB 1 billion on projects to support the indigenous peoples of the North.
Nornickel’s strength in engaging with indigenous peoples is driven by its ongoing contacts with indigenous communities and families and regular discussion of issues as they arise, contributing to better understanding and inclusive engagement.
Youth programmes
Add Colours to Your Town project
For ten years running, Nornickel has been holding its annual Add Colours to Your Town art contest for children and young people living in Norilsk and Monchegorsk. The main idea behind the project is to engage the younger generation in transforming these places through art, foster place attachment, and build a vision of their future intertwined with where they live. Apart from providing a springboard for art projects, the contest encourages responsible attitudes towards the environment and sustainable use of resources.
Career guidance for children
On 1 September each year, the Company provides all first‑graders in its host cities with A Book on How Metals Helped Build Cities, showcasing metals and mining jobs. Consistent career guidance efforts foster a feeling of pride for Nornickel among children and helps them relate to what Nornickel does as well as introduce them to local cultural heritage while promoting scientific knowledge and making science more attractive through exposure to the Company’s production processes.
Green Brush online camp
Every year during vacations, Nornickel supports the Green Brush online children’s camp to offer career guidance and foster green behaviours and a safety culture. The project lays a foundation for training future environmental engineers and H&S professionals by teaching school students to be environmentally responsible and considerate as well as conscious of their own safety and the safety of those around them.
In 2023, over 600 schoolchildren aged between 8 and 14 participated in webinars, creative workshops, and online quizzes hosted by practicing environmental engineers, geologists, occupational safety specialists, and education experts. Around 80 people took part in webinars for teachers.
City of Endless Inspiration art festival
The second City of Endless Inspiration public art festival was held in Norilsk in 2023 supported by Nornickel. The festival’s key message is that we can and should improve the environment we live in, and public art, such as street art, singing, playing music, and dancing are excellent tools to do just that. The festival helps rally Norilsk residents around the idea of improving the city and its environment by creating art together.
Reflection was the keynote idea behind the most recent festival. People, urban space, and art are all reflections of the city. Throughout the event, local residents could take part in interactive immersive activities that put a spotlight on the beauty of the city and its people. During the festival, more than 3 thousand local residents attended creative laboratories, masterclasses and workshops, with the most active participants recognised with prizes. In the run‑up to the event, a campaign was held to collect scrap metal and plastic bottle caps, which the festival participants turned into unique art projects during the festival.
Charity programmes
World of New Opportunities
To foster sustainable development across its operating regions, Nornickel has launched the World of New Opportunities charity programme focussed on building social skills among local communities, demonstrating and incorporating new social technology as well as supporting and encouraging community initiatives and intersectoral partnerships.
The programme’s goals include developing the service economy across Russian regions, improving the business climate, and facilitating the development of small‑ and medium‑sized businesses, including social entrepreneurship. Since 2014, training programmes have been annually delivered for business communities, with support from trainers and mentors. On top of this, in 2023, Nornickel provided access to entrepreneurship trainings and financial aid for launching a business to high‑school and university students based in Norilsk.
During the year, over 80 participants were trained under entrepreneur support programmes, with 35 projects selected for post‑training investment rounds. A total RUB 49 million in interest‑free loans (for nine projects) was raised in Norilsk and RUB 20 million (for eight projects) in the Murmansk Region.
The Socially Responsible Initiatives Competition, held by Nornickel since 2014 to support community initiatives, is a crucial element of the World of New Opportunities programme. Over 3.6 thousand applications have been submitted to the competition over the past decade, with support granted to more than 950 projects for a total of RUB 1.1 billion.
Socially Responsible Initiatives Competition
In 2023, 106 social‑impact initiatives were implemented in Nornickel’s regions of operation. In 2022 and 2023, Nornickel primarily focussed on intersectoral partnerships and integration projects. In September 2023, the Company announced the new phase of the Socially Responsible Initiatives Competition. The competition’s geography was expanded, with a total of 371 applications received.
The competition’s sponsors observe some positive trends: the quality and definition of applications have improved; the number of partnership projects has increased; and the range of social services provided by participants is expanding. 2023 also saw an increase in the number of partnership projects and situations where resources were pooled to boost the social impact.
Systematic work with participants, educational programmes, and travel grants are starting to bear fruit. Employee volunteers team up with school students and teachers to create projects; makers innovate for non‑profit organisations and children with special needs; and entrepreneurs offer their resources to monetise and scale social‑impact projects – such partnerships generate synergies and promote sustainability.
Peremena: Change Starts with You education project
During the year, the Company continued its Peremena: Change Starts with You project, which brings together all stakeholders of the educational process: children, parents, and teachers. Over 2 thousand people from six localities took part in the project. In early 2023, project experts delivered a series of in‑person trainings modules such as Strong Skills of a Modern Educator, Motivation and Methods for Engaging School Students in Game Activities, and others.
In June, the Peremena: Urban summer academy was organised in Saint Petersburg for 50 school students from the Company’s operating regions. During the ten busy days of the event, the participants were immersed in the world of urbanism and social design. They also visited the site of Gipronickel Institute and met with employee volunteers.
In March 2023, over 700 teenagers aged 14 to 18 from three of Nornickel’s operating regions took part in the SVET ON youth forum to try their hand at entrepreneurship, engineering, and technologies. Over 30 Nornickel partners joined their efforts to support the forum.
IMAKE League project
The project brings together aspiring makers and future engineers and scientists. The Company leverages this venue to build a system of educational activities that promote science projects among children and teenagers.
The project’s key activities in 2023 were IMAKE Science Camp in Skolkovo, Skill Camp in Vladivostok, and IMAKE engineering marathon, which included crash courses and workshops across a number of cities, consultations with makers, and reviews of inventions and prototypes. In 2023, more than 5 thousand school students from the Company’s regions of operation took part in the project. For the first time, the project’s events – a family invention festival, a maker cleanup day, and a crash course for children – were held in the settlement of Snezhnogorsk.