Many opinions propose to amend the term of mineral exploration license

At the 2nd Workshop to collect comments on the Draft Law on Geology and Minerals held on September 29 in Lam Dong, Mr. Pham Thanh Tuan - Head of TKV's Natural Resources Department proposed that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment amend the regulations on the term of mineral exploration licenses. Specifically, regarding exploration, according to the current Law on Minerals, the maximum term for an exploration license is 48 months, which can be extended multiple times, with a total maximum extension period of 48 months, so the total GPTD term (including the extension period) is a maximum of 96 months (8 years).

Meanwhile, according to the Draft Law on Geology and Minerals, the maximum term for an exploration license (Clause 4, Article 59) is 48 months, which can be extended multiple times, with a total maximum extension period of 24 months, so the maximum term of an exploration license (including the extension period) is 72 months (6 years).

TKV proposed to maintain the maximum extension period for exploration licenses as per the current Law at 48 months, because after the exploration license expires and the exploration report is approved, the time to prepare the exploitation project and complete the required procedures and documents to be eligible for the application for a mineral exploitation license takes a long time (more than 24 months). Therefore, with the above time, enterprises do not have enough time to carry out the procedures and documents to apply for a mining license.

Sharing the same opinion with Mr. Pham Thanh Tuan, previously, at the 1st Workshop to collect comments on the Draft Law on Geology and Minerals in mid-September in Quang Ninh , the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quang Ninh province proposed that the Drafting Committee consider keeping the regulation on the total extension period as the current Law, which is 48 months (Clause 2, Article 41 of the 2010 Law on Minerals).

Mr. Ngoc Thai Hoang, Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quang Ninh province explained: “In fact, due to the problems of overlapping planning boundaries of exploration projects with local boundaries (planning boundaries of forest types), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has applied and granted licenses for non-overlapping areas; for the remaining areas, enterprises continue to carry out procedures to remove obstacles, but in practice, implementing and completing these procedures often takes a lot of time. Therefore, if the exploration license is not extended many times with a short extension period, the licensed unit will not have enough time to carry out the entire volume of the Project”.

Also giving his opinion on the regulation on the term of mineral exploration license, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hai, Ban Phuc Nickel Mine Company Limited, proposed to increase the term of the exploration license to 60 months and to extend it many times but not more than 60 months. He explained that Vietnam is located in a tropical, monsoon area, the rainy season usually lasts an average of 4-6 months, rain and floods greatly affect exploration work, especially in mountainous areas; moreover, complex and deeply distributed metal minerals require more time and technology to accurately characterize the ore body, so it is necessary to increase the term of the exploration license as well as the extension period of the exploration license as proposed above.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Lai Chau province also suggested amending this regulation to: “A mineral exploration license for common construction materials is valid for no more than 12 months and can be extended multiple times, but the total extension period is not more than 6 months. A mineral exploration license for other minerals is valid for no more than 48 months and can be extended multiple times, but the total extension period is not more than 24 months.”

According to Mr. Mai Van Thach, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Lai Chau province, it is necessary to clearly define the time for each job, so that when the time for a job expires, the time for that job must be extended accordingly. For minerals used as construction materials, if the exploration time is prolonged, it will affect the construction progress, price slippage, etc.

Source