Minerals Law.

The Minerals Law 2020 is drafted in light of Article 9 of the Constitution. This Law follows the objectives for sustainable economic development, achieving maximum benefits of the mines exploitation, implementing international standards on minerals operations, preparing the bases for local and international investment, management of the mining operations by considering the environmental impacts and promoting peace and security through economic development. The Ministry of Minerals and Petroleum is in charge of implementation of this Law. Chapter Two of the Law refers to the duties and authorities of the Ministries for nomination of the minerals, granting licenses, approval or rejection of the plans, assessment of the plans, monitoring and control of the license enforcement, minerals contract management and drafting policies and long term programs. These rights are granted through official licenses, which define the scope and conditions of water use. The Law further verifies different Committees and also the High Council of Economy who are in charge of monitoring and implementing objectives of this Law in cooperation with relevant Ministries.
Chapter Three of the Law considers the issue of ownership and specifies that all the natural minerals are owned by the government. The requirements for legal mineral operations by the natural persons and legal persons are described. The licenses are required to be registered based on principle of transparency and the records and documents related to the mineral operation should be kept for a minimum of ten years. In Chapter Five different licenses are identified including the minerals license for small and large infrustructures, exploration license and exploitation license. License holders are permitted to extract and use surface and groundwater for exploration purposes, provided they comply with the provisions of the Water Law. These rights are granted through official licenses, which define the scope and conditions of water use. The law further provides for the conditions of grant of license and withdrawal of license, changes in the plan, transfer of license or benefits of the license. Chapter Eight refers to the mineral operation contract that could be concluded after conduct of negotiation and performing the volunteering process. The mineral operation contracts are concluded based on sample contract.
The Law further provides on relevant dues, levies and tax and the guarantees that are required to be submitted for performance of duties. Article 54 of the Law refers to the environmental guarantees that should be delivered before extraction of the field, and the format and amount of the guarantee shall be nominate by the Ministry of Minerals and the National Department on Protection of Environment. The Law further describes the consequences of non compliance of regulations and administration monitoring. Chapter 11 of the Law provides for the environmental management and requirement for compliance of the environment regulations and laws. The National Department on Protection of Environment is in charge to assess the plan and its consistency with the environmental conditions of the field. This Department is allowed to ratify or reject a plan based on environmental conditions. The Law furthers refers to social development and improve of local employment by granting priority to local residents, and implementing goals for sustainable social development.
Other provisions of the Law refer to safety and security conditions for mining operations, cultural and ancient antiquities, transferring license, professional and non-legal mining. This Law consists of 77 Articles divided into 15 Sections.