Article: Novelties of the Republic of Kazakhstan Code «About mineral resources and subsurface resources management»
Novelties of the Republic of Kazakhstan Code "About mineral resources and subsurface resources management"
Islambek Nurzhanov
Kazakhstan’s land has always been famous for the diversity of natural resources, and the questions of their rational complex use, as well as protection, have always been relevant. Regulation of relations in the subsurface resource management originates from the Law of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic «On the natural environment protection of the Kazakh SSR» from the 18th of June 1991. During the independence years several amendments to the legal acts on mineral resources and subsurface resources management were made. On the 27th of December 2017 the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbayev signed the new Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On mineral resources and subsurface resources management» (further – the Code). The code entails significant changes in the legislation on subsurface resource management. Some of them we will discuss below:
1. «First come – first served»
For the first time the Australian method of «first come – first served» with the granting the right for subsoil use is be introduced to the legislation. Applications for the subsurface usage licenses are considered by the authorized authority in the order in which they were received. License is given to the applicant whose application satisfies the Code the first amongst the ones reviewed.
2. New regimes of the subsoil use rights
The Code has classified the mineral resources regulation regimes into carbohydrates, uranium, and solid minerals. Together with that new ways of granting the subsoil use rights are provided. This way, for the exploration and extraction of solid minerals the authorized authority gives licenses, the exploration and extraction of uranium can be done in the result of direct negotiations, and in the case of carbohydrates the right of use is given in the results of an auction or direct negotiations.
3. Production of common commercial minerals
The novelty of the Code is granting licenses for the extraction of common commercial minerals (further – CCM). Issuance of license for the production of CCM and control of the operations will be performed by local executive bodies. If the territory of the CCM mine site is located in two and more regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the license will be issued by the local executive body of the region that has a bigger part of the mine site.
4. Social liabilities
The new Code defines exact liabilities amounts of the subsoil users in financing education, science and social and economic development of the region during the time of extraction. Thus, financing the education of Kazakhstan employees, scientific research, expenses on the social and economic development of the region will equal 1% of the extraction costs.
5. Notifications in the subsoil use sphere
There is a notifications order between the subjects of legal relations of the subsoil use. Relations actors are notified through notifications in written form, publications in the periodic print media, and through internet-resources in Kazakh and Russian. According to the new Code, written notices can be sent in the form of electronic documents of by using electronic means of communication.
In our opinion, novelties mentioned above make the process of receiving the right of subsoil use more transparent and faster, which will significantly facilitate the activities of all subjects of relations in the subsoil use sphere.
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