History Channel - Getting Out Alive: From Siberia to Suburbia (2008)

From the platinum in your hard drive to the nickel in your stainless steel pan to the palladium in your car's catalytic converter, some of life's most ordinary things come from the world's most extraordinary places.
The documentary uncovers the dangerous, arctic journey of a metal the world can't live without. Follow an American film crew as it gains special access to the formerly closed city of Norilsk, Russia, a desolate place full of secrets, above the Arctic Circle where the average life expectancy is just 52. There, get a firsthand look at the extreme industry, machines, and workers that bring the world a supply of precious metals that feature in items we often take for granted. Finally, witness the grueling voyage of these metals through the unforgiving icy arctic waters aboard the world's only fleet of nuclear icebreakers.
Who'd have guessed the platinum in your hard drive came from the bowels of a Siberian Gulag mine, delievered across a frozen ocean via a fleet of massive nuclear-powered Soviet icebreakers? In this eye-opening program, HISTORY uncovers the dangerous journey of metals from remote parts of Russia to the West a journey few people know anything about.
GETTING OUT ALIVE: FROM SIBERIA TO SUBURBIA tells the audacious story of one of the toughest industries and some of the toughest people in the world today.