Potential of Technogenic Mineral Raw Materials in Russia and the Issues of its Rational Use

• Main Authors: Larisa Ivanovna Goncharova, Fedor Dmitrievich Larichkin, Vladimir Nikolaevich Perein
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Vologda Research Center 2015-11-01
• Series: Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
• Subjects: mining waste; organizational and economic mechanism for waste management; price valuation methods; evaluation of economic effectiveness; rational nature management; integrated use of raw materials
• Online Access: http://esc.vscc.ac.ru/article/1689/full?_lang=en

The increasing negative impact of mining waste on natural ecosystems often leads to their irreversible destruction, a trend that is gradually becoming global. The particular relevance of the research is explained, on the one hand, by the possibilities of minimization of specific volumes of formation of mining waste in all types of industries; on the other hand, by the possibilities of maximization of comp rehensive use of their valuable components as secondary material resources on an economically rational basis and the possibilities of restoring the disturbed natural environment. The rational use of natural and technogenic mineral raw materials is greatly facilitated by the geological exploration and geological-economic evaluation of the resources, which requires the development of specific methodological approaches to the economic justification of resource estimation parameters for outlining and calculating the multicomponent commercial reserves of raw materials and separate valuable components in them. Analysis shows that researchers’ opinions on a number of methodological principles of sustainable mining, complex processing of multicomponent materials are often contradictory. Scientific publications do not consider the issue of the price valuation of mining waste as secondary material resources. Mining waste processing should be considered as an important part of the overall socio-ecological-economic system for rational nature management. The analysis of the existing practice of using the mining waste should be based on the system approach and take into consideration geological, technological, economic, environmental and social characteristics throughout the cycle of production, combined processing and treatment of secondary waste according to the principle “from the earth to the earth”. The article identifies the main barriers to the recycling of mining wastes, proposes several methodological guidelines for the sustainable mining and comprehensive processing of multicomponent raw materials. The authors also substantiate the methodology for economic efficiency assessment of complex utilization of technogenic raw materials. This technique has been used in practical calculations to assess various options to improve the efficiency of waste recycling at JSC Kovdorsky GOK and other facilities