In December 1943 Albert Speer, German Minister of Armaments and War Production, flew on an inspection tour to Kolosjoki, which by then was the sole supplier of nickel to the Third Reich.

By placing the power plant security on a lower priority, Speer was able to make the transportation shipments of the vital ore to Germany move quicker.

[8] The town is linked to the Norilsk Nickel plant Kola MMC nearby where many of its citizens have been employed and which has caused environmental and health concerns for the population.

The nickel smelter which has been an eyesore in Norway–Russia relations for decades due to its extreme pollution levels has usually deposited its sulfur dioxide fumes to the south of the town where the countryside is a brown moonscape of bald hills, barren of plant life for kilometers around.

[10] In the summertime, the toxic fumes which for the rest of the year rarely blew northwards towards the town occasionally did just that, making breathing difficult and even burning holes in people's umbrellas.