--- description: The world's largest nickel manufacturer, Norilsk Nickel, has admitted responsibility for turning a river in the Siberian town of Norilsk red title: Russia's Norilsk Nickel Admits to Turning River Blood Red image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [russia](/tag/russia/) ## russia Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # World's Largest Nickel Company Admits to Turning Russian River Blood Red by [Tekendra Parmar](/author/tekendra-parmar/) ## Tekendra Parmar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 13, 2016 5:37 AM CUT by [Tekendra Parmar](/author/tekendra-parmar/) ## Tekendra Parmar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 13, 2016 5:37 AM CUT The world’s largest nickel manufacturer, Norilsk Nickel, said it was [responsible](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37345105 "undefined") for turning a river in the Siberian town of Norilsk into a [lurid shade of red ](http://time.com/4483520/russian-river-red-norilsk-nickel-chemical-spill/ "undefined")last week. On Sept. 7, Russia’s [environment ministry suggested](http://www.mnr.gov.ru/news/detail.php?ID=145060 "undefined") a pipe leakage from a factory owned by Norilsk Nickel may have resulted in the discoloration of the Daldykan river in the Russian Arctic. The company [initially denied](http://time.com/4483520/russian-river-red-norilsk-nickel-chemical-spill/ "undefined") that the pollutants originated from one of its plants. > [](https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/773418832547475456) According to [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37345105 "undefined"), the company said that a filtration dam was compromised on Sept. 5 after heavy rains caused it to overflow into the river. Although the company denies any danger to people or wildlife, Greenpeace Russia activist Alexei Kiselyov told Agence France-Presse that it was too early to assess the impact. “You can’t just say that it’s no big deal,” he said. Kiselyov accused Norilsk Nickel of hindering investigations by controlling access to the affected areas, making it difficult to inspect pollutants originating from their factories. \[[BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37345105 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4488846/russia-daldykan-river-red-norlsk-nickel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4488846/russia-daldykan-river-red-norlsk-nickel/"},"headline":"World's Largest Nickel Company Admits to Turning Russian River Blood Red","datePublished":"2016-09-13T05:37:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:33:08.694Z","description":"Though the company denies danger to people or wildlife, activists disagree","url":"https://time.com/4488846/russia-daldykan-river-red-norlsk-nickel/","keywords":["russia","Siberia","greenpeace","red"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tekendra Parmar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tekendra-parmar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/russia/","name":"russia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4488846/russia-daldykan-river-red-norlsk-nickel/","name":"World's Largest Nickel Company Admits to Turning Russian River Blood Red"}}]}] ```