In recent years the terms “green chemistry” or  “sustainable development”  have become more popular as a new approach to chemical production around the world. Green chemistry is an expression of a set of principles that reduce or eliminate the use, production and release of hazardous substances during the production and application of chemical products. The article provides an explanation of the 12 principles of green chemistry proposed by the American scientist Anastas in 1988. At the same time, it highlights how to follow these principles during the complex processing of mineral raw materials. It is shown that traditional existing technologies do not meet the principles of modern “green chemistry” in the complex processing of difficult-to-enrich ores and selective concentrates. The article compares the processing of raw materials by pyro and hydrometallurgical methods and shows the advantages of the latter method. A collection and analysis of literature and articles related to modern problems of green chemistry was carried out. Finally, an assessment of the processing of 4 mineral resources (polymetallic sulfide ore, alunite ore, arsenic-containing cobalt ore waste and copper ore) existing in the territory of our Republic using green chemistry principles was carried out and an analysis of how to use these principles with technological schemes was given.

doi.org/10.32737/0005-2531-2025-2-21-35