The new mining draft law was accepted by Grand National Assembly of Turkey on Wednesday.
The law will be valid after Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signs the new law when it is published on the official gazette. The law is expected to reshape the sector with a number of changes.
Mining licenses and discovering rights will be transferred to others only by the permission of the minister.
According to the law, the government will remove rights of trade in mining between companies so that they will not sell their mines to other private companies easily, ensuring that the value of the state’s assets will not be compromised.
There will be permanent mine inspectors who are mining engineers, both in the technical and operational stages of the mining sector. They will record their observations and suggestions about the license they are assigned to. If the inspectors do not record regularly, the owner of the license will be fined 20,000 liras, around $8,000.
Mining license fees will be determined in line with the proportion of the mining area, so that larger areas will pay more for the licenses. Under the law, all mining operations in Turkey will be operated under the supervision of a mining engineer.
There will not be any royalty tender except for state institutions and organizations and the lifespan of the royalty licenses will not be expired anymore.
The licenses which do not fulfill the obligations will be fined 50,000 liras, around $20,000 per year and in case of the repetition of violations against the license rules, the license will be cancelled.
Mining production will be stopped immediately if potentially dangerous situations in terms of acts contrary to the mining project are detected.
Business projects and changes in these projects will require submission to the headquarters of Turkish energy ministry’s General Directorate of Mining Affairs, MIGEM, for approval before they are put into practice, otherwise production activities will be halted. The implementation of business projects and activities will be monitored by authorized legal entities. MIGEM is responsible for giving licenses to regions that will be opened up to mining.
By Nuran Erkul
Anadolu Ajansı
nuran.erkul@aa.com.tr