"The plant will resume work as soon as it receives enough wood pulp," Alexei Nagayev said.
The mill, which is located next to the world's largest body of fresh water, Siberia's Lake Baikal, recently switched its production process to a closed water cycle after coming under pressure over waste discharges into the lake, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Rosprirodnadzor imposed in early December 2007 a five-day ban on the dumping of waste into Lake Baikal from the mill, and filed a lawsuit against the company for damages of over 475 million rubles ($19.9 million). The state environmental watchdog eventually increased the size of the legal claim to 4.2 billion rubles ($176 million).
The Baikal pulp mill, which produces 200,000 metric tons of pulp and 12,000 metric tons of paper annually, is owned by the timber industrial company Continental Management (51%) and the State Property Committee of Russia (49%).
