Residents of the village of Chersky, Nizhny Kolimsk region of Yakutia, reported severe congestion of the Panteleikha River and the massive death of fish. According to them, the water acquired a brown-yellow colour after the washing of gold-bearing sands and the discharge of wastewater. According to the editors of “Yakutia.Info”, residents associate difficulties with the activities of LLC “Pivnich” and expect that the water is obstructed and collapsing at the village water intake. Video recordings were released before the hunt, showing the dead fish.
Panteleja flows approximately 132 kilometres and flows directly into the Colima near Chersky. This pool occupies approximately 1.6 thousand square kilometres. Historically, the territory of Lower Kolya is associated with the traditional natural history of indigenous peoples – Yukagirs, Chukchis and Evens; an important part of the life of local groups is being deprived of fishing. The name Pantelehi itself, in one version, is associated with the Yukagir princes Pantele and Korali, whose ancestral lands were located in this region.
According to data from Yakutia.Info, residents claim that the cause of the problem was the wastewater discharge from Pivnich LLC. The company was registered in Yakutsk in 2008, and its main type of activity is the production of ores and precious metals. Since 2023, the director of the company is Semyon Du. TOV “Pivnich” is an operating enterprise.
At the same time, the activities of companies associated with Semyon Du previously fell under the radar of environmental authorities. On 27 June 2025, at the LLC “GDK Reserve” dealership in the Aldansky district, the dam of the water purification drainage tank broke. As a result, two more dams were built, and the obstructed water flowed into the Turukan stream. The Ministry of Ecology of Yakutia carried out a scheduled inspection, took water samples and transferred the materials to Rosprirodnaglyad and the environmental prosecutor’s office. The General Director of DDK Reserve is also Semyon Du.
According to the data from the Galuzovsky publication “NedraDV”, there are connections with a whole group of gold mining enterprises in Yakutia. Zokrema, LLC “Druzhba”, as it stands, holds a number of search and production licenses for precious metals. Du himself is the director of over two dozen companies, a significant portion of which are engaged in gold mining.
Other news about the enormous work of LLC “Pivnich” in the Nizhny Kolimsk region. The materials of the arbitration document, published by the legal system “Garant”, reveal a license for work on the large ancestral river Starodavny in the Nizhny Kolimsky ulus with gold reserves of approximately 478 kilograms. The term of this license has passed since 2018, so this fact in itself does not confirm that any work on Panteleis is carried out on the basis of this same license.
At the moment, the results of a laboratory analysis of Panteleja’s water have not been published, and this would allow the establishment of a warehouse for polluting rivers and a central water tank. Also, no official information has yet been found from the Ministry of Ecology of Yakutia, Rosprirodnaglyad, or the prosecutor’s office about the verification of the spring episode itself. Therefore, the statement about those who are confused about the activities of LLC “Pivnich” is still based on the evidence of the poor and will require confirmation from visual authorities.
The situation raises particular alarm due to the proximity of the river to Cherskoye and connections from Kolyma. Once the information about the contamination and massive death of fish is confirmed, the evidence can be lost not only to the watercourses, but also to the fish resources, nutritional water supply and traditional environmental management of the Nizhnyaya region. Kolymi.
The main problems that remain are the lack of carrying out independent sampling of water and dead fish, the installation of a specific plot of water bottles and an active water supply, as well as verification of what was allowed to reach the drainage tanks and recycling water supply at the time of washing the gold-bearing sands.
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