| Background:
The study area is the South Urals mining region of west-central
Russia. Many of the mineral deposits being worked are
uneconomic in current world markets and the extraction
technologies used are often inefficient and environmentally
unsound. Mining-related activities have left a catastrophic
legacy of environmental problems. Sulphur dioxide emissions
from smelters are measured in thousands of tonnes per
year and many of the region's watercourses, lakes and
soils are polluted from mine waters. To date no effective
monitoring of the scale of the problem has been carried
out.
It
is clear that socio-economic-environmental problems
in the region need to be addressed through an integrated
development plan. To help achieve this, the 'MinUrals'
project has four main objectives:
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