ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF THE DAMAGE CAUSED TO NATURAL AND ECONOMIC FEATURES BY THE IRON-ORE INDUSTRY OF THE KMA

Abstract

The growing iron-ore industry of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly in central Russia causes heavy damage to the environment because of heavy reliance on open-pit operations. The damage includes the transfer of fertile chernozem farmland to mining uses, the razing of settlements and the need for resettling the displaced population, the transfer of land in industry to mining uses, and the cost of restoring the regional water-management balance after disruption by open-pit mining. Formulas for calculating the replacement cost of the disrupted features are proposed, and the resulting reduction of the cost-effectiveness of the mining operations is calculated. The transfer of farmland to nonfarm uses is found to be the greatest factor reducing the costeffectiveness of the mining operations. The restoration of the water balance is less of a factor, and the compensation for the razing of settlement and industry is found to be negligible, possibly because some aspects were not considered in the calculations.