Norilsk, once a slave labor camp, now prospers as a source of palladium. Not bad, except for the two months of darkness and temperatures of minus 80 F.

"Blessed with a cornucopia of precious metals buried beneath a desert of snow, but so bereft of sunlight that nights in winter never end, Norilsk, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is a place of brutal extremes. It is Russia’s coldest and most polluted industrial city, and its richest...

Norilsk, once a slave labor camp, now prospers as a source of palladium. Not bad, except for the two months of darkness and temperatures of minus 80 F.

"Blessed with a cornucopia of precious metals buried beneath a desert of snow, but so bereft of sunlight that nights in winter never end, Norilsk, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is a place of brutal extremes. It is Russia’s coldest and most polluted industrial city, and its richest...