Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the specifics of performing economic activities in the border area during the extraction of copper-pyrite ores at the Vesenne-Aralchinskoye deposit.

The scope of this Agreement shall be to establish the specifics of performing economic activities in the border area during the extraction of copper-pyrite ores at a transboundary mineral deposit. The principles of economic activity in the border shall be as follows: (a) preventing the creation of obstacles to the maintenance of the state border between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan and the fulfillment of tasks by the border authorities; (b) territorial integrity and inviolability of the state border between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan; (c) rational use and protection of mineral resources; (d) implementation of economic activities in accordance with the authorization and project documentation; and (e) liability of the authorized organizations for causing harm in the process of performing economic activities in the border area. Authorized organizations shall be: (a) on the part of the Russian Federation - Closed Joint-Stock Company "Ormet"; and (b) on the part of the Republic of Kazakhstan - Aktobe Copper Company Limited Liability Partnership. Project documentation, construction projects for infrastructure facilities, operation of a mining enterprise, liquidation and conservation of a mining enterprise, use of water management facilities, as well as other design documents shall be prepared by authorized organizations independently from each other in accordance with the legislation of each of the states of the Parties and shall not be subject to interstate environmental audit provided by the Agreement on interstate environmental audit of construction projects representing mutual interest for the member states of Commonwealth of Independent States, on 13 January 1999. In the process of performing economic activities in the border area, authorized organizations shall conduct monitoring of the state of the environment, the results of which must be notified annually by authorized state bodies of their states. In the event of a sharp deterioration of the environment in the border area identified as a result of monitoring, the authorized organizations shall take immediate measures to eliminate the identified situations and their consequences and notify the authorized state bodies of their states of the identified situations, the measures taken and their results.