by Yaroslav RENKAS, journalist From February 25 to 28 of this year the All-Union Exhibition Center in Moscow was the site of one of the most prestigious meetings of businessmen - the 4th Moscow International Salon of Innovations and Investments. Its sponsors included the RF Ministry of Industry, Science and Technologies, Russia's Ministry of Economic Development, ROSPATENT, the Government of Moscow and the RF Chamber of Trade and Industry. The forum's agenda focused on promising projects, propaganda of the R&D potential of our domestic producers, and the like. In the focus of special attention was the Trans-Polar branch of NORILSKY NIKEL mining and metallurgical company - the world's biggest producer of metals of the platinum group. Pages. 61 The city of Norilsk, associated with the company and its name, was founded in 1935. Its truly heroic history has been a chronicle of daring scientific thought and continuing R&D efforts. The extreme natural-climatic and geographical conditions of Trans-Polar region (Krasnoyarsk Territory) required from the "pioneer" settlers, and from the industrial producers operating there today, some truly unorthodox technical solutions. The local ore deposits of unique richness and diversity required for their development some of the latest achievements of Russian and international science and technology, highly effective methods of raws extraction and production of non- ferrous and precious metals. Originally the development of new processing technologies of copper-nickel sulfide ores was the responsibility of specialists of the Leningrad Institute SOYUZNIKELOLOVOPROEKT - a name which speaks for itself. Later on, however, local Pages. 62 researchers convinced the government of the need to launch the production of metals "on the spot", in Norilsk, and building there what they called a "minor" metallurgical plant for the development of the basic technologies. These were intended for the subsequent construction of a bigger ... Read more