Russia RUSAL offers Norilsk free ecological aid

MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) - United Company RUSAL offered on Tuesday to conduct a free feasibility study for an environmental overhaul of mines and smelters belonging to Russian miner Norilsk Nickel, in which it owns a one-quarter stake. UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer, repeatedly has criticised Norilsk Nickel's management and largest shareholder, billionaire Vladimir Potanin, since acquiring its stake in the company in April this year. "The environmental situation at Norilsk is on the brink of catastrophe," UC RUSAL Chief Executive Alexander Bulygin said in an open letter to his counterpart at Norilsk, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, whose nomination UC RUSAL had opposed. UC RUSAL believes a large-scale environmental modernisation programme at Norilsk Nickel's facilities could resolve the situation, Bulygin, one of UC RUSAL's three representatives on Norilsk's nine-man board, wrote in the letter. "We will prepare this feasibility study at no cost to Norilsk Nickel," Bulygin said. Norilsk's development strategy to 2020 sets environmental safety improvements, as well as a reduction in air emissions and waste water discharge, as long-term objectives, the company says on its Web site, www.nornik.ru. Norilsk has said it invested over 7.5 billion roubles ($305.4 million) in 2007 in various environmental programmes. Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, was built on Soviet leader Josef Stalin's labour camps and now accounts for a fifth of the world's nickel production and more than half of its palladium. The city is ranked among the world's 10 most polluted places by the New York-based Blacksmith Institute. (Reporting by Aleksandras Budrys; editing by Michael Roddy)