Law No. 2395-I on subsoil.

This Federal Law regulates relations arising in the field of use and protection of subsoil, development of technologies for geological study, exploration and production of hard-to-recover minerals, use of subsoil waste (overburden and host rocks, sludge, mineral processing tailings and other waste from geological study, exploration, production and primary processing of mineral raw materials containing minerals and useful components or not containing minerals and useful components), specific mineral resources (salt brine of estuaries and lakes, peat, sapropel and other mineral resources), groundwater, including produced water (water extracted from the subsoil together with oil, gas and gas condensate, and water used by subsoil users. Extracted minerals, groundwater, and specific mineral resources may be federal property, property of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, municipal property or private property. Subsoil users may be legal entities constituted in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, individual entrepreneurs who are citizens of the Russian Federation, unless otherwise established by federal laws. Abstraction of groundwater for the purposes of drinking water supply or technical water supply to partnerships must be carried out in compliance with the rules for the protection of groundwater bodies, as well as the basic requirements for the rational use and protection of subsoil. Subsoil may be conceded for the following purposes: 1) regional geological research; 2) geological study including exploration and valuation of mineral deposits; 3) prospecting and extraction of minerals (art. 6). Concession of subsoil shall be carried out in conformity with the special state authorization legalized in the form of licence (art. 11). The system of environmental fees shall be set for all the types of activity specified in the licence (art. 39). The Act consists of 7 Sections composed of 52 articles. Section 1 (arts. 1-5) lays down general provisions. Section 2 (arts. 6-22) classifies the types of subsoil management. Section 3 (arts. 23-34) regards rational use and protection of subsoil. Section 4 (arts. 35-38) regards state regulation of the relations originating from subsoil management. Section 5 (arts. 39-43) sets the system of environmental fees. Section 6 (arts. 49-51) establishes liability for the infringement of the present Act. Section 7 (art. 52) regards international agreements.