Decision of the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt promulgating the Mineral Resources Law No.198 of 2014.

This Law consisting of 44 articles aims at regulating search and exploitation operations for the raw materials of mines, quarries and salt pans. The Law is also applied to agreements of minerals and its exploitation. All the related licenses issued prior to this Law remain valid and license fees shall be adjusted. The Law provides for two main categories of mining licenses, that is, for (i) exploration; and (ii) production operations. An exploration license is granted for performing general survey, exploration and feasibility studies within the licensed area. A production operation license is granted for performing mining, construction, processing, and refining operations. Concerned body to run and manage the activity of mineral wealth in Egypt is the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority (EMRA) which main tasks are: (i) Organization of the search and exploitation operations of ore mines and control over those operations, (ii) Technical supervision; (iii) Approval for issuing the licenses for mines (the license of search in mines is issued by the decision of the Minister or the Governor with the approval of the competent Authority); (iv) Conducting research and exploitation; (v) Suggesting areas of research and mining exploitation after the approval of the minister or the competent governor. The concerned Province is the managerial institution specialized in managing the quarries and salt pans located in its area and under the technical supervision of the Institution. The duration of the search license is two years, renewable for one period only, while the duration of the exploitation license is maximum of fifteen years and may be extended for five years.
The Regulation deals also with: regulations of search license in mines; spaces allowed to have a license for the research and exploitation in mines; regulations of exploitation licensing of mines, quarries, and salt pans; fees; and license cancellation. The Law also regulates consequences for violating the provisions of the law. A violation can be punished by both administrative and criminal sanctions, including revocation of the license, expropriation of the materials used in the as well as fines and imprisonment.