IRKUTSK, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - The Baikal pulp and paper mill, which was due to restart operations on Tuesday after closing in 2008 for financial reasons, has not resumed work as scheduled, a company spokesman said.

"Nothing has changed on the pulp market since October, when the plant halted operations. The company's launch, scheduled for February 10, will not take place," he said on Tuesday.

The management of the East Siberian mill said in November that unless the situation improved by February, it would be forced to dismiss almost all its employees. The mill had 2,300 employees when it suspended work in October.

"The plant needs working capital to resume production, but the company does not currently have any," the spokesman said, adding that no proposal had so far been made to cease production altogether.

Russia's Natural Resources Ministry reiterated late in January its ban on the discharge of any waste into Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater lake, by the Baikal mill. The mill said last year that the new closed water cycle introduced due to environmental concerns had made operations unprofitable.