136
Arctic Yearbook 2015
2013). Greenland made a final push in 2009 with the adoption of the Act on Self-Government (Act
no. 473) under which it receives greater rights to self-govern including mineral resource developments
(Statsministeriet 2009; Government of Greenland 2009: 7).
Current mining activities in Greenland are mainly composed of exploration activities but a number of
mining projects are approaching an advanced stage (The Ministry of Finance… 2013: 9). In 2014, there
were six exploitation licenses in force (Mineral License and… 2014: 11). The number of applied and
granted mineral licenses in the country increased steadily between 2002 and 2012 (Government of
Greenland 2012: 13). At the same time, investments in exploration have grown significantly and in 2011
it reached nearly DKK 700 million (Government of Greenland 2012: 14). In 2010, the industry turnover
was DKK 24.1 million (Statistics Greenland 2013: 21).
Russia
Russia’s mining industry is the country’s most important sector after oil and gas. The extractive
industry – including oil, gas and mining – is a key driver of economic growth with a widespread effect
throughout other sectors of the economy (Federal book 2011; Rosstat 2013). In 2012, mining
production value contributed to 4.4% of the GDP (ICMM 2014).
Russia is a globally significant producer of a vast range of mineral commodities, including aluminum,
arsenic, cement, copper, magnesium compounds and metals, nitrogen, palladium, silicon, and
vanadium (EU Mineral Statistics 2013). Russia has the world’s second biggest proven coal reserves
and it has been dubbed as the “Saudi Arabia of coal.” Currently the country accounts for 4.5% of
global coal production (Multanen 2013).
There are 7425 officially opened mining spots, of which 1909 are in use (Petrov 2010). The main
mining region is located in the Russian Arctic, with 10% of the world’s proven nickel reserves, about
19% of the world’s platinum group metals, 10% of titanium, as well as gold, zinc and cobalt (Bortnikov
et al. 2015). The most significant Arctic mining deposits are located in Sakha region, Kola Peninsula,
Norilsk area and East Siberia. Domestic private corporations and state-owned companies dominate
the industry (Minerals Yearbook 2012).
Currently the Russian extractive industry is undergoing growth of mining activities (Rosstat 2013).
However, positive economic results were reached mainly because of supplementary exploration of
existing mines and revaluation of the resources (Federal Book 2010). Until 2009, about 80% of mining
production came from “old deposits” opened up in Soviet times (ibid). The industry seriously lacks
investments on geological exploration of new mining deposits (Natalenko 2015).
Sustainability in national mining strategies
Bein