Defining foundations for a comprehensive assessment of mineral deposit development in the Republic of Tyva

This paper proposes a methodological framework for a comprehensive assessment of deposit development in the Republic of Tyva, a region with a high resource potential and significant infrastructural, environmental, and institutional constraints. This approach is relevant due to the need to compare subsoil use targets not only by reserves and profitability, but also by transport accessibility, energy supply, environmental sensitivity, and availability of the social and institutional environment. The objective is to develop a reproducible framework for integrated assessment and ranking of the resource nodes for the regional strategic planning. Methods of comparative analysis, standardization, expert weight-based survey, threshold filtering, index aggregation, and scenario testing are used. A pilot study of four nodes in Tyva demonstrates that taking threshold constraints into account changes the priority of targets compared to an assessment that is based solely on resource and economic parameters. Weights for five sets of criteria, a composition of basic indicators, and a format for presenting results in the form of an integrated index and a bottleneck map are obtained. The scientific novelty lies in the integration of geological, infrastructural, economic, environmental, social and institutional parameters into a unified regionally-focused procedure with threshold tolerance and scenario-based verification. The proposed method can be used by regulatory authorities and subsoil users as a tool for preliminary screening and coordination of decisions regarding subsoil use and infrastructure development, as well as a basis for adapting the model to specific deposits.