The basic problems of mineral resources valuation methodologies within the framework of System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts

Abstract

Growing awareness of limits set by exhaustibility of natural resources has led to a conclusion that only through their valuation in monetary terms one may assess a comprehensive economic impact of their use. Thus mineral resources have been included from the beginning to almost all studies regarding natural resources assessments. The first result, widely recognized by international community, of researches came in the 1993 – edition of the “Handbook of National Accounting: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting”. One of the key outcomes of these works was a conclusion that measuring value of mineral resources for mineral raw materials production, alongside with physical flows of these materials, environment related transactions and measuring impact of the economy on the environment, should make basic pillars of this newly designed system, later named as the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounts (SEEA). As implementation of SEEA is still in a primary stage, many methodological issues remain unsolved. This article attempts to enumerate achievements made so far and indicate issues in need for further development.Taking into account the importance of mineral resources for further economic development of Poland authors indicate a necessity to develop and implement methodologies for monetary assessment of resources/reserves available, extracted and depleted in order to form a methodological base for a meaningful policy of sustainable growth. The special challenge results from monetary assessment of explored but yet undeveloped mineral deposits.