Developing now in the world scientific and technological revolution leads to the breakdown of established proportions and methods of production, generates new, sometimes contradictory phenomena and trends in the economic life of society. This process has affected one of the oldest industrial branches of human activity - mining. ...

Before starting the development of a field, it is necessary to discover and explore it, to determine its suitability for industrial development. This requires the cost of social labor, the scale of which cannot be underestimated. Thus, the cost per 1 m of explored reserves varies from 2 kopecks for iron ores to several thousand rubles for some rare metals and makes from 0.1 to 25% of the cost of the final product. In 1951-1956 capital investments in geological exploration amounted to 12.3% of all capital investments in the coal industry, 37.3% in the oil industry, 53.6% in the gas industry.