Economic regulation of land use in iron ore mining areas

Economic regulation of land use rests upon the notion of the earth as the natural subject of crucial importance, used as the key tool of production in agricultural industry, entitled to special protection, and on the beliefs that industry activity should be spatial. Mineral mining industry is one of the key branches of economy. Russian Federation has the world's largest natural resources. Russian mineral wealth makes 16% of the world' mineral resources per 2.6% of the world population living in Russia. Mineral mining industry enjoys rapid development in many regions of Russia. Major iron ore production occurs in the Belgorod Region holding 14 proven fields. The largest open pit mining company is Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Integrated Works. Advance of the Company is associated with meeting some challenges relating to rational use of adjacent highly fertile black soil agricultural lands. The most important element in the economic regulation of land use is fee based on cadastral value of agricultural lands. The value of lands differs according to type of the land use. Cadastral value of lands of industrial use (iron ore mining) in the discussed region is 556- 685 rub/m2, agricultural use lands - 5.8 rub/m2. In the authors' opinion, cadastral value cannot be a criterion to evaluate productive lands. Such criterion may be an index to characterize agricultural use appropriateness of lands derived based on the land rating. Since the accretion of lands of industrial use in the area of iron ore mining is accomplished by means of withdrawal of nonfarm lands from the nearby agricultural lands, the authors suggest approaches to economic protection of the lands and to compensation payment to be returned to the land owners. To this effect and for taxation purposes and solving of other business problems, it is required: to determine criteria and indexes of land value in the iron ore mining areas; to develop rating procedures for such lands with regard to cumulative environmental damage.