Specific features of sustainable development in mining regions and industries: balancing economic, social and environmental interests

<jats:p>The mining sector accounted for 22.5% of Russia’s GDP in 2024. The aim of this study is a quantitative assessment of the balance of economic, social and environmental interests in twelve resource-producing regions based on indicators of the sustainability triad. A hypothesis is made that the level of mono-specialization in mining negatively correlates with the integral sustainability assessment regardless of the GRP per capita. The empirical base comprises data of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), the Federal Service for Ecological, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision (Rosprinadzor), the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-being (Rospotrebnadzor), the Ministry of Energy and nonfinancial reporting of companies for 2018–2024 (8,760 observations). Based on this information the authors performed rate setting for six indicators, calculation of an integral score and a disbalance index, as well as a correlation-regression analysis. The range of the integral score is 23.4 points: from 53.9 (Kuzbass) to 77.3 (Krasnoyarsk Krai). Kuzbass is in the “resource trap” quadrant (with the disbalance index of 82.7; carbon intensity of 138.5 t CO2-eq/million rubles; 29.97% of air samples exceeding MACs). The Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs combine high income with limited diversification (with the mining share of 54.8 and 48.6 %), forming “affluent single-industry specialization”. The Spearman coefficient ρ = −0.71 (p &lt; 0.01) confirms the hypothesis. Environmental protection investments in oil and gas sector grew 2.15 times with a 17.2% emissions reduction, while metallurgy showed 2.75 times growth with a 28.5% reduction in emissions.</jats:p>