Possible ways to improve the state regulation in geological industry in Russia

The relevance of the research. At the moment mining industry production in Russia increases. But geological sector is no longer able to provide necessary increase in reserves for the extractive industries, which is caused not only by the gradual depletion of mineral resource base of the country and other objective reasons, but by work organization in the industry as well. Over the years the development of the geological sector was hindered by a number of barriers related to the imperfection of the legal framework and, as a consequence, to the administration inefficiency. The main aim of the study is to identify the main problems of state regulation in geological industry and possible solutions; to show how the change in certain provisions of the regulatory framework for the natural reserves use can reduce the cost of exploration work, delays in obtaining permits and, as a consequence, the temporal duration of geological exploration itself. The methods of study: the analysis of some features of state regulation in geological industry as well as the study of certain legislative framework provisions for geological exploration in Russian Federation. The paper provides as well the assessment of practical relevance and feasibility of individual regulations and comparison between organization of geological exploration in Russia and in foreign countries. Results: The author has found out the most important issues that can be solved by introducing amendments to the existing legislation and has given the economic substantiation of inconsistency of certain legal provisions to the principles of modern market economy. The paper demonstrates the way these problems are solved in other developed countries. The author developed the proposals for improving the state regulation of geological exploration. Conclusions. The proposals for solving the identified problems have both legal and economic components. Implementation of the pro-posed recommendations would improve the state of geological industry in Russia due to changes in the legal framework. The solution of the problems identified would not require additional financial investments and would also reduce the temporal duration of geological exploration and cut unnecessary expenses of geological enterprises.