MOSCOW (Reuters) - Three people were killed on Tuesday in an accident at Norilsk Nickel's Taimyr mine in Siberia, the Russian company said.
The world's largest palladium producer and second-largest nickel producer said the mine was still working after the incident. It is one of the company's main mines in Siberia and contains mixed ores. Nornickel is also a major producer of platinum and copper.
"The circumstances of the incident are being clarified," said Nornickel, which is part-owned by Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin and aluminium giant Rusal.
At 1630 local time three workers were found dead at a depth of 1,445 metres (0.9 miles), Nornickel said, adding that there had not been a fire.
The accident did not cause the mine to collapse, TASS news agency quoted the emergency ministry as saying.
"Nornickel is conducting an internal investigation into the incident and will provide new information as it becomes available," the company said in a statement.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt and Anastasia Lyrchikova; Editing by David Goodman)