SUSTAINABLE USE OF METALLIC MINERAL RESOURCES OF SERBIA FROM AN ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

Sustainable use of metallic mineral resources of Serbia, being a part of natural resources, represents the basis for the planning, functioning, development and growth of numerous sectors of the economy as well as the basis for assessing the positions and perspectives for further socio-economic development of the country.Following a two-decade long period of socio-economic regression and economic and financial decline in Serbia, as well as problems in the functioning of institutions and strategic planning and development, the application of concepts for sustainable development is of great importance for the further development of Serbia's mineral sector.Defining the conditions and ways of using metallic mineral resources in the transitional conditions of economic growth and the European integration process represents a delicate geological, mining, technological and economic undertaking, among other things, important for the further functioning of the mineral sector and successful development of the country's mineral economics.Sustainable use of Serbia's metallic mineral resources should enable the implementation of a long-term mineral strategy and mineral policy of sustainable use of mineral resources and is focused on, among other things, increasing the efficiency of mineral resource use on one hand, while decreasing the negative impact of economic utilisation of mineral resources on the environment on the other.The geological and economic analysis in this paper is focused on observing the aspect of Serbia's sustainable economic growth, based on the sustainable use of metallic mineral resources while simultaneously mitigating the negative impact on the environment.