The growing needs of mankind for minerals predetermine a systematic increase in the scope of mining operations. However, it is known that mineral resources are not evenly distributed in the bowels of the earth; therefore, due to their production, some regions of our planet can significantly outstrip other regions in their technical and, as a result, economic development; hence, the constant need to extract more minerals in order to develop the domestic industry and to strengthen the economy. This paper is devoted to the Central Asian states, their internal structure, economic integration into the world economy, and the mining sector development as the basis of a successful model for the development of the country as a whole. The study summarizes and analyzes the political system and socio-economic conditions in the Central Asian states. It presents a brief overview of the scale of mining operations; provides information about the mining industry structure in each country and the proceeds from its sales. Taking the Central Asian states as an example, we demonstrate the importance of the mining sector as an integral part of a country’s domestic economic structure.

This paper considers the issue of mining non-metallic (rock) products in the context of transition economies. Our studies have shown that interest in non-metallic products is growing every year, as evidenced by the growing volumes of production both around the world and in the group of countries considered in the article. The market analysis for non-metallic minerals has revealed the market development dynamics; however, its high monopolization may lead to some restrictions on free competition in subsoil use. In order to assess such monopolization, we have calculated the Herfindahl-Hirschman index for each non-metallic mineral mined in countries with economies in transition. We have found that the entire product range under consideration is part of a highly concentrated market dominated by the Russian Federation. We have presented some options for designing and introducing various kinds of arrangements to develop the mining potential of non-metallic minerals in order to reduce the dominant component of individual countries or companies and to balance the market. It is proposed to consider a partial transition from the possibility of developing deposits to an underground one — as an alternative option that harms the environmental load on the situation in the mining area. The results of this study will be used to conduct a detailed analysis in each country under review, which will provide the most complete picture of the mining industry in countries with economies in transition.

One of the main technological tasks facing mining engineers today is a reduction of the oversized fraction output. Currently, the efforts of scientists are aimed at developing reliable grain-size composition predicting models for the extracting rock mass, as one of the initial factors for reducing economic losses throughout the technological cycle. However, many of the existing models do not consider the mutual influence of a number of factors, which explains the instability of the drilling and blasting performance indicators, their low efficiency and, as a result, an increased oversized fraction output. The model for grain-size composition predicting for mining enterprises will be interesting only if the proposed technological solution together with a pre-established fraction of rock mass will increase the efficiency of blasting operations with the desired reduction of all material and non-material expenditures. In this paper the authors give a brief overview of the global mining volumes; provides information on the extraction of key types of minerals, as well as revenues derived from their sale. They also specify the direction for future actions in creating a predicting model for the rock mass output of a certain fragmentation after the explosion.