Baku, Azerbaijan, October 5
Trend:
Kazakhstan has presented an updated Subsoil Code.
The Code not only facilitates the work of investors in the field of extraction of natural resources, but also minimizes corruption risks in their work, the Deputy Minister for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan Timur Toktabaev said, speaking at the Minex-2018 Russia mining industry forum, the press service of the Ministry for Investment and Development of Kazakhstan said.
"The best international practices in ensuring transparent and understandable methods of state regulation of the industry, access to geological information, harmonization of national standards with world standards have been introduced in the new Code," Toktabaev said.
The time for granting the right for subsoil use has been reduced from 24 months to several days by introducing the principle of the first application. The access to geological information has also been opened; the international system for calculating reserves of mineral resources through the CRIRSCO system has been introduced with a transition period of five years.
And the most important thing is that the corruption risks have been minimized as much as possible, since the requirements for subsoil users in the implementation of subsoil use operations are extremely clear and fair.
“In order to ensure consistency and transparency in the provision of subsoil use rights according to the principle of “first application”, Kazakhstan has adopted a program for managing the state fund of mineral resources. This is a new tool for implementing state policy in the field of subsoil use, which gives to investors a general idea about the development of the relevant industry in the medium term,” the ministry says.
As of September 15, 2018, the applications for exploration have been accepted under the above program, and therefore the licenses will be issued from October 15 of this year. In the transitional period until 2024, in accordance with the code, the issuance of a license for the extraction of solid minerals shall be carried out through implementation of an auction.
The next step towards the development of this industry is the commissioning of the National Data Bank (NDB), which allows for transferring the relationship of state bodies and subsoil users to electronic format.
Thus, within the framework of the NDB, not only the granting of the subsoil use rights will be carried out in electronic format within a few days, but also the access to geological information, submission of reports by subsoil users, monitoring of the execution of license and contract obligations, etc. will be provided.
"According to the Code, the responsibility for conducting the state expert review of mineral resources has been transferred to competent persons in order to ensure preparation of the reports based on CRIRSCO standards with the subsequent gradual abolition of the State Commission on Mineral Reserves beginning from 2024. The CRIRSCO standards are used in all developed countries. This is an opportunity for domestic companies-subsoil users to enter world stock markets and exchanges in order to attract foreign and domestic investments due to the transparency and predictability of the sphere of subsoil use," the message says.
