Mountain area: 3,500,000 m2
Average height of the mountain: 100 meters
A govt needs some area to build some stuff. I’m trying to figure out if it would be cheaper for them to remove a mountain (this area is owned by govt so its basically free real estate), or paying individual land owners ($15-20/m2).
Point of mountain removal is to make this place suitable for development (industrial area). So probably they don’t have to remove the entire mountain
If the mountain contains valuable minerals then the cost will be negative; you can make money by removing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining
Though, depending on the geology, you might not want to build a town on the resulting site. Sometimes heavy metals leach out of the disturbed rock, resulting in polluted surface water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_mine_drainage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Pit
No minerals