Environmental protection and sustainable development of the mining industry in Murmansk Region, Russia

• Published in: Vestnik MGTU
• Main Authors: Makarov D. V., Borovichev E. A., Klyuchnikova E. M., Masloboev V. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Murmansk State Technical University 2020
• Subjects: охрана окружающей среды; горнопромышленный комплекс; устойчивое развитие; природоподобные технологии; особо охраняемые природные территории; арктическая зона рф; environmental protection; mining industry; sustainable development; nature-like technology; protected areas; russian arctic; General Works; A; Arctic; Murmansk
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.21443/1560-9278-2020-23-1-63-71; https://doaj.org/article/5c62a03157cd4144ad4de03868aec326

The mining complex of the Murmansk region (Russia) has a negative impact on natural ecosystems and worsens the quality of the environment, since the development of non-renewable mineral resources is associated with a significant transformation and destruction of natural communities. In the Murmansk region, where the mining industry forms the basis of the regional economy, the research aimed at achieving sustainable development goals involves the search for 1) new integrated approaches to ensure the development and implementation of environmentally friendly technologies for the extraction and processing of minerals; 2) managerial decisions supporting the transition to a circular economy; 3) the establishment and development of protected areas, including compensatory; 4) the restoration of disturbed landscapes; 5) the development of nature-like technologies for the recovery of valuable components from minerals, and 6) the protection of the environment. Futhermore, there is need for a constant search for some balance of interests of local communities and mining corporations in the context of environmental protection and economic development in order to maintain social sustainability. Without designing the foundations of the state policy for the transition to a closed-loop economy, the implementation of even existing technologies will be too slow. There is a survey of nature-like technologies developed in the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences for processing minerals and protecting the environment, rehabilitation of disturbed areas exposed to industrial air pollution, reclamation of the water and land areas polluted by oil and oil products as well as examples of territorial nature conservation that do not block the development of processing minerals.