"The people rebelled - and thank God!"

Residents of the rural settlement of Khatang in the very north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory require a referendum: people against transportation and storage in their village of radioactive ore of rare -earth metals.

It, according to the project of Trarka Mining (a joint venture of the Rostec State Corporation and ICT), will take a winter house from Yakutia, from the Tomtorsky field. In Hatang there will be a transshipment point: here the ore will "wait" navigation, then it along the Northern Sea Route, and then - by rail - will be delivered to the metallurgical plant in Krasnokamensk.

People in Hatang are sure: this project is dangerous for their life.

"Someone wants to earn at the expense of our health"

The largest hall of the local culture house would be filled on March 30: a meeting of the inhabitants of Hatanga with representatives of Vostok-Engineering took place here. This subsidiary of Trarka Mining was created specifically for the development of the Totor field of rare earth metals and niobia in Yakutia.

The state does not need so many rare earth metals. Just someone wants to earn at our expense

Initially, it was planned to transport ore on Lena. But businessmen calculated that this is not the best route from the point of view of the economy. In addition, the inhabitants of Yakutia opposed this: people are afraid that radioactive ore will destroy the river. Then the option with Hatanga appeared. And he, apparently, is final.

Representatives of Vostok-Engineering at the meeting told: the Tomtorsky field unique in stocks and the maintenance of rare-earth metals, which are used in the defense industry, aircraft and engineering. Tomtor will be able to give them more than the world's largest deposits of Brazil and China. And the transportation of ore does not pose any danger. But the inhabitants of Hatanga consider it differently and demand an independent examination of both ore and the project as a whole.

Speech by a resident of Hatanga at a meeting with industrialists

- Our people rebelled, and thank God. We have already found out that the state does not need as many rare earth metals as they are going to mines on the tomom, and only 15% of this amount. The rest will go for sale, for export. That is, someone will earn on our health, on the health of our children, because the ore is radioactive. We consulted with geologists, they confirmed this. We, honestly, are in panic and in shock, ”says Yuri Tyutrin , a resident of the village, editor of the site “ Hatanga.rf ” .

The company "Vostok-Engineering" is stated: in the settlements of the ore itself will not be stored, warehouses will be built a few kilometers from them.

-The ore will be transported in special sealed beigs (md-soft container). The safety of the operation of the ICR is ensured by the design of the packaging kit: two layers with a plastic liner between them are given a six -fold margin of strength from ruptures and wakeings. The packaging was chosen on the basis of the experience of using the ICR for transporting goods in the Far North, ”says Sergey Sergienko , the managing director of Vostok-Engineering.

But, even if the containers are absolutely reliable, there is always a probability of an accident, confident in Hatanga.

- I recently read on one of the sites of Yakutia: "On our beauty, Lena will not carry radioactive ore." Moreover, this article is also given on the website of the company "Trarka". They recognize, it means that the ore is radioactive and the danger exists. And Hatanga, it turns out, is not such a beauty, can we go to us? Exactly half of the winter road will pass on the ice of the Hatanga River, and we all know how much equipment is heated there. In this case, it will be a technique with radioactive ore. But, in addition, the migration paths of a deer, nomadic pastures will be violated, the plants will die - this highway will become a dead territory. Deer will leave us. And this will destroy our normal life. At least in the sense that the locals mainly eat venison and fish, the rest of the products that are imported to us are simply exorbitantly expensive, cosmic, ”says Yuri Tyutrin.

But that's not all. In Hatang, they have already calculated: for 5 months, 170 thousand tons of ore will be brought to them in winter workers. This means that every day 130 heavy trucks will pass through the village.

- For comparison: now we have four cars, and these KamAZs broke the road so much that there was nothing to breathe. And then one hundred and thirty! But somewhere they need to be placed, and people working on them need to be somewhere. Where? Here, sometimes two third -party all -terrain vehicles will come - and it is not clear where to go. And all this will be in the tundra, it will be broken, littered and pledged with fuel, metal. Now a lot is said about the development of northern environmental tourism. Tourists go to us and go through us, for example, they get to the Putoran plateau, UNESCO heritage. And what an ecology will be here! - says Tyutrin.

The tundra will be cluttered, pledged with fuel and metal

Yuri says: the day after meeting with the businessmen, at which he spoke very actively, he was invited to "talk." Representatives of the company admitted that they are monitoring his site, where materials about the Taxi are published, including. They convinced that everything was not as scary as the Khatangans seemed, they talked about the new jobs that Hatange needed. And a little later on the same day they held another meeting: with representatives of associations of small indigenous peoples. Tyutrin notes: apparently, they decided to "process" everyone separately, for each case - their arguments.

- They scare us here: they say, if this project is not there, they can close Hatanga at all. But this is nonsense: Hatanga costs almost 400 years, we have a port and aviation have always worked normally. And then it is necessary - without merchants, everything will suddenly bend, ”he says.

"Nobody gave an answer"

The meeting with the inhabitants of Khatanga on March 30 did not have a public hearings, after which the project could be made to the project - this was just a “acquaintance” with entrepreneurs. Such a meeting has no legal consequences: they talked - dispersed. At the same time, the inhabitants of the village were outraged that the warehouse of ore in Hatang was spoken of as an already resolved issue. Hatang, as one of the points in the logistics chain for the transportation of ore, is in all presentations, in all descriptions of the project. This option is called approved . That is, people were simply confronted with the fact: ore will be taken to you.

- Who gave them the go -ahead for this project is unknown. I sent a letter to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation back in the fall of 2018, asked for clarifications, and demanded on behalf of our Association for holding public hearings on this project. But from the Ministry of Natural Resources they did not answer me, but handed my letter to the National Affairs Agency. From there I received an unsubscription: they say that they sent requests to the regional governments of Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, so that, in turn, they requested materials confirming the conduct of economic activity from East Engineering ... In general, in general, I still have not heard anything from anyone, ”says Gennady Schukin , the President of the Association of Public Associations of the Roiled Little Persons Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets district.

People were confronted with the fact: they will bring ore to you

It was the same in Yakutia. The Tomtor project there was also discussed unofficially. Moreover, as Elena Timofeeva , chairman of the Association Dolgan Yakutia, says, these meetings were “half -closed”: either the organizers chose the smallest hall for their holding, accommodating no more than ten people, or even “forgot” to inform the inhabitants.

- This project worries us not so much in connection with transportation - here the issue seemed to be resolved - how much with mining ore. The deposit is located near the Anabar ulus. There is one river - Anabar, and, of course, the negative consequences for it will be. So for people, ”says Elena Timofeeva. - In the Anabarsky district, in recent years, diamonds have been actively produced, water in Anabar is polluted with heavy metals, the fish is sick. And in people it is the basis of the diet. Poor water, sore fish - hence the growth of cancer. People die at 50 from blood cancer, sarcoma, oncology is increasingly detected in children. And these are diamonds-they are not radioactive. And here is radioactive ore.

People at the age of 50 die of cancer, cancer is increasingly found in children

At the same time, the inhabitants of Anabara are almost nothing about the new project.

- We do not know about the pluses that this project probably has, nor about the minuses. Fear of people - perhaps more than it should - causes this closeness, lack of information. There are only 2000 residents in Anabar - what prevented them from meeting them and telling everything as it is? But this did not happen. I am entering the Council for Environmental Expertise and have never seen documents on this project. Only the Internet is monitor and from there about the field I learn something, ”says Timofeeva.

People are now convinced that ore is not dangerous. But experts say : this is not so. Moreover, its extraction at the Tomtorsk field will be open - mine production in this territory is extremely difficult.

- This ore really contains uranium and thorium, this is a universally recognized fact. And although the maximum concentrations of uranium in it are a share of percentage, it is not worth lowering the danger of mining this ore in an open way, ”says Andrei Ozharovsky , physicist, expert of programs“ against nuclear and radiation threats ”and“ safety of radioactive waste ”of the Russian socio-ecological union. - When mining, the conditions in the place of ores - the layers will be flooded in an open way, oxygen access will be open to them. This can lead to the transition of uranium from a sparsely -soluble oxide form to the ionic shape, and ions will be washed out with water, will fall into the rivers. Perhaps this is permissible for a sparsely populated area, but here we need an honest assessment of environmental impact. As for the transportation and storage of ore, special measures must necessarily be taken so that there is no one. The company promises to transport ore in supernight containers - I really hope that it will be so.

The managing director of Vostok-Engineering, Sergei Sergienko, informed the publication Siberia. Reals that by the end of 2019, project documentation on Tomtor will be ready. Then they will assess the impact of the project on the environment and public hearings. In the meantime, only "introductory conversations" are held with people.

"I think the pressure on us will still"

They no longer believe in Hatang that their opinion will be taken into account at the “official” public hearings: there are too many inconsistencies and contradictions in what they say. Therefore, they decided to hold a referendum on which the issue will stand like this: "Do residents of the rural settlement of the Hatanga Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets municipal district agree on transportation and storage of ore of rare-earth metals in the territory of the rural settlement?"

The organizer was Alexander Belyaev , a lawyer of the Khatanga Council of Deputies. In Hatang, he lives recently - he moved here with Altai. And he still has no experience in preparing and conducting referenda. But Alexander is sure: he will cope.

- Now representatives of the authorities are a little cunning - they offer not a referendum, but a survey: they say, a referendum itself is costly, but it will still be necessary to fly on helicopters in the villages, and this is serious money. But the fact is that the results of the survey are not necessary, it is simply “information for information”, without legal consequences. And the results of the referendum are required. They no longer need to be approved anywhere, it will be a law at our municipal level, ”says Alexander Belyaev.

In order to submit a referendum statement to the local election, an initiative group is needed - at least 10 people. Alexander says in it, it is planned to include representatives of all villages included in the rural settlement of Hatang. There are just ten of them along with the administrative center. In order for the initiative group to be registered, we need signatures of at least 5% of all voters. And then it will be approved by the local council of deputies.

- But here I am just worried: some of the deputies work in our Khatanga Sea port, which is interested in this project, so they do not need a referendum. I was already told in the administration that, they say, humanly supported me humanly, and how state people have no right to support me, ”says Alexander. -But if the authorities will repair some obstacles to us, for example, by formal signs, he will refuse to hold a referendum, we will turn to the prosecutor's office. Or to the court - so that he recognizes our actions legal. In general, so far there is no particular pressure on us. But I think everything is ahead.

The preparation of the referendum will take about 5-6 months, says Alexander Belyaev. This means that it will take place shortly before the documents are ready that giving rise to the development of the Totor field.