Status of hunting resources in the area of the Nezhdaninskoye gold deposit

The Nezhdaninskoye gold deposit is located in southern Verkhoyansk, in the valley of the Tyra River (the right tributary of the Aldan River). The field was actively developed from 1974 to 1998. Development of Nezhdaninskoye was resumed in 2019, when the field completely came under the control of Polymetal JSC. During the entire period of development of the field, no work was carried out to assess the impact of the enterprise on the environmental conditions of the habitat of commercial mammals in the region. In 2022, M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University, commissioned by Polymetal JSC, conducted research on the species diversity and abundance of commercial mammals in the area affected by the Nezhdaninsky mining and processing complex. The main тarget of the research was to assess the direct and indirect impact of gold mining activities on the number and distribution of commercial mammals. A study of the diversity and abundance of hunting mammals in the vicinity of the Nezhdaninsky gold deposit did not reveal significant differences in these indicators with the hunting grounds of the Tomponsky ulus (district) not affected by anthropogenic impact. In forested areas, the animal population density was higher than in open biotopes. It was found that the impact of the activities of the mining enterprise is local in nature, which is facilitated by the rugged terrain and a special operating mode that does not require workers to be outside the enterprise. The location of a mining enterprise does not have a significant negative impact on the number of most species of game animals living in adjacent areas. For economically valuable animal species, direct persecution remains a more significant limiting factor reducing numbers.

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