The main directions of the state regulation of ecological safety of subsoil use in the present conditions of an impending global ecological crisis are defined. These directions are environmental legislation (EL), ecological monitoring (EM), ecological standardization (ES), environmental impact analysis (EIA) and state environmental review (SER), ecological certification (EC), ecological audit (EA) and state ecological monitoring of rational use and safety of works related to subsoil use (SEM). We identify the problems of institutional capacity for environmentally sustainable development of subsurface resources associated with fragmentation, inconsistency and incompleteness of the specific measures that have been set out in Russian legislation. Elimination of these problems requires the development and adoption of new formal rules. The article justifies the necessity to assess the completeness of institutional capacity based on the greening development of mineral and raw materials potential represented as a primary mineral resources and technogenic deposits. We demonstrate the need to shift from the pollution control policy to the policy aimed at the pollution prevention or, at least, pollution restraint. The research confirms the practicability of the state regulation tools development of ecological safety in the direction of substitution the strict policing and punishment system of subsoil users with policy of financial and economic rewards for those who seek to reduce the anthropogenic impact on the environment.