At the presentation of amendments to the Code on Subsoil and subsoil use in the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Deputy Konstantin Avershin told what changes were prepared for companies in this field. inbusiness.kz .
Konstantin Avershin said that the document would ban “behind-the-scenes decisions” on access to mineral resources in Kazakhstan.
“The hidden extraction of solid minerals under the pretext of pilot production will be banned and will lead to the immediate revocation of the exploration license,” he said.
At the same time, according to him, the mechanism of auctions for exploration will also be changed.
“The payment of subscription bonuses by the winners will be carried out before the issuance of a license for the subsoil, and the winner and his beneficiaries who refused to pay the bonus will be prohibited from providing the subsoil in the next 5 years and allowed to acquire the rights to the subsoil from third parties. The auction mechanism will also be expanded to cover all cases of termination of subsurface use rights or invalidation of old reserves, subsurface use contracts, as well as promising projects that were provided without open review, out of competition, and increased subscription bonuses, including cases of industrial and innovative projects and national companies,” the deputy continued.
After the revision and revocation of the rights to the subsoil for such projects, the subsoil plots for them will be re-granted, but only through an auction without any privileged special exceptions.
“This will help to avoid previously committed large-scale violations of access to mineral resources, favoritism and raiding,” the Mazhilisman added.
In general, as he added, in addition to the auction, there is another mechanism for accessing solid minerals – this is the principle of the “first application” with the recording of the time of receipt of applications online. It is proposed to implement this mechanism through a single subsurface use portal, eliminating the two-stage and behind-the-scenes selection of the necessary blocks.
It was noted at the meeting that the
