Nikel

Nikel (; , , , formerly Kolosjoki) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Pechengsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the shores of Lake Kuetsyarvi northwest of Murmansk and from the Norwegian border on E105. Population: 18,000 (1973).

==History== In the 1920 Treaty of Tartu, Soviet Russia ceded the area of Petsamo to Finland. In the 1930s huge reserves of nickel were found on fells nearby. The amount was estimated to be five million tons. In 1934, the Finnish government awarded the mining right to the British Mond Nickel Co, subsidiary of International Nickel Co (Inco), that founded the Petsamon Nikkeli Oy mining company. The company began building a railway, as well as other infrastructure, between the town, then known as Kolosjoki, and Liinahamari harbor.