On the morning of April 28 in Quang Ninh, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment held a workshop to provide comments on the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decrees detailing the Law on Minerals. Authorized by Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Quy Kien, Director of the Vietnam Minerals Department, Mr. Nguyen Truong Giang chaired the workshop.
Attending the workshop were representatives of the Ministry of Construction, leaders and experts of specialized departments under the Vietnam Minerals Department, Departments, Bureaus, and specialized institutes of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Office of the National Mineral Reserves Assessment Council, representatives of leaders of the Departments of Natural Resources and Environment and experts in charge, representatives of enterprises and mineral-related corporations.
It is necessary to amend and supplement the Decrees detailing the Law on Minerals.
Speaking at the opening of the Workshop, Mr. Nguyen Truong Giang - Director of the Vietnam Minerals Department said: After 13 years of implementing the Law on Minerals, the Government has issued 12 Decrees detailing the implementation and handling of administrative violations in the field of minerals.
The system of legal documents on geology and basic minerals is complete, contributing to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of minerals; promoting basic geological surveys on minerals and the mining industry; and increasingly strict and effective mineral management.
However, through the process of summarizing the implementation of the Law on Minerals, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment found a number of new legal and practical requirements that require immediate amendment and supplementation of these Decrees.
According to Director Nguyen Truong Giang, on January 6, 2023, the Government issued Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP on key tasks and solutions to implement the Socio-Economic Development Plan, State Budget Estimates and improve the business environment, enhance national competitiveness in 2023, in which the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was assigned to draft a Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decrees detailing the Law on Minerals, and submit it to the Government in June 2023.
Mr. Mai The Toan - Deputy Director of the Vietnam Minerals Department said that the development of the Decree aims to continue to fully institutionalize the viewpoints, guidelines and policies of the Party and State, especially Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW to overcome the shortcomings, limitations and inadequacies of the Decrees detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the 2010 Mineral Law; create a synchronous and unified legal corridor, ensuring transparency; overcome inadequacies to uniformly manage the fields of geology and minerals; strictly manage, economically and effectively use minerals.
The Draft Decree consists of 7 articles, including: Article 1. Amending and supplementing Decree No. 158/2016/ND-CP of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Minerals; Article 2. Amending and supplementing Decree No. 22/2012/ND-CP of the Government regulating the auction of mineral exploitation rights; Article 3. Amending and supplementing Decree No. 67/2019/ND-CP regulating the method of calculation and collection of fees for granting mineral exploitation rights; Article 4. Amending and supplementing Decree No. 23/2020/ND-CP on management of river sand and gravel and protection of river beds, banks and beaches.
Article 5. Amendments and supplements to Decree No. 51/2021/ND-CP on mineral management in national mineral reserve areas; Article 6. Amendments and supplements to Decree No. 36/2020/ND-CP on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of water resources and minerals; Article 7. Responsibility for implementation.
Many comments on the Decrees detailing the Law on Minerals
Deputy Director Mai The Toan specifically stated the contents that need to be clarified, amended and supplemented in the above Decrees. On that basis, delegates attending the Workshop had many comments to contribute to the Draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decrees detailing the Law on Minerals.
Among them, there are many opinions suggesting to amend and supplement the regulations related to accompanying minerals. According to the representative of Nui Phao Mineral Exploitation and Processing Company Limited, the reality of exploitation and processing shows that with modern and advanced production technology, the ability to recover additional accompanying minerals during the process of exploiting and processing the main mineral is very high.
However, the problem with associated minerals is that they are not mentioned in the reserve approval report, there is no technical plan for recovery in the mining design, and their economic value is not calculated when building the business model of the mining project, leading to the mining enterprise often having to consider economic benefits and investment efficiency when recovering.
To ensure the exploitation and full utilization of valuable resources without wasting them, the Company recommends that the drafting team consider developing an incentive mechanism so that businesses have a basis for recovering accompanying minerals.
Specifically, the drafting team considered not collecting mineral rights fees for accompanying minerals (except in cases where there is a basis to clearly determine the reserves to be recovered) and not requiring the adjustment of the entire Mining License to serve the purpose of recovering accompanying minerals (currently, just having an approval letter from the management agency to recover accompanying minerals already takes a lot of time and effort of the enterprise).
Taxes and fees on accompanying minerals will be calculated based on the volume of accompanying minerals as final products recovered, while environmental protection fees will be paid as in the case of mineral recovery.
The company also recommended that the drafting team consider not classifying mineral components with sub-marginal content or those that are depleted during the mining process as accompanying minerals, because if the mining enterprise invests in modern processing technology, it can still be mixed with high-content mineral components for processing and obtain finished products that meet requirements.
Regarding the exploitation of accompanying minerals, Mr. Mai Van Thach - Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Lai Chau province also proposed to supplement that, for the use of soil and waste rock in the process of mineral exploitation, organizations and individuals granted a Mineral Exploitation License, during the exploitation process are allowed to exploit and recover accompanying minerals such as soil and waste rock for construction materials and filling purposes other than those specified, and do not have to carry out procedures to adjust the exploitation license.
Organizations and individuals must declare and pay resource tax, environmental protection fees and mineral exploitation rights fees according to regulations; based on the mine owner's annual report, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is responsible for presiding over the calculation of mineral exploitation rights fees and other revenues according to regulations.
At the same time, it is strictly forbidden to sell, give away, or donate mine waste rock and soil without declaring and paying mineral exploitation rights fees, resource taxes, and environmental protection fees as prescribed.
In addition to comments on accompanying minerals, there are many other opinions related to the installation of weighing stations, collection of fees for granting mineral exploitation rights, etc. Mr. Nguyen Tien Manh - Deputy General Director of Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Group (TKV) proposed the Draft Decree to amend and supplement: "Organizations and individuals exploiting minerals must install weighing stations to control all exploited raw minerals, except for some cases as prescribed; install surveillance cameras at warehouses to store relevant information and data".
He also proposed to add a recovery factor related to the mining method for associated minerals, especially the useful components that are contained in the main mineral ore that cannot be separated during the mining process, and can only be recovered during the selection and refining process. Because the recovery is combined during the selection of the main mineral, the recovery factor depends entirely on the main mineral selection technology and is often lower than that of the separate selection technology.
Regarding the reserves used to calculate the mineral exploitation right fee, TKV proposes that for mineral exploitation licenses issued after the effective date of Decree No. 158/2016/ND-CP, the reserves used to calculate the mineral exploitation right fee (Q) are the exploited reserves specified in the mineral exploitation license.
At the same time, TKV proposed to amend the regulations to allow organizations and individuals exploiting minerals to pay mineral exploitation rights fees corresponding to actual exploitation output and pay annually according to the number of years of exploitation license.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also received many comments from the following units: Quang Ninh Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Ban Phuc Nickel Mining Company Limited, Dong Bac Corporation - Ministry of National Defense... for the Draft Decree. The Director of the Vietnam Minerals Department acknowledged all these comments and will report to the Ministry to soon complete the Draft Decree.
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