About the Regulation for Mining.

Mining Law no.3213 (“Law”) has been enacted as of 4 June 1985. The present law regulates the principles and procedures concerning the search, operation, right to possession and abandonment of mines.

Pertaining to the aforementioned Law, the Mining Regulation (“Regulation”) has been published in the Official Gazette dated 21 September 2017 which contains the procedures and principles on exploration, operating, development and extraction of mining sources within the control and ownership of the Turkish Republic in line with national interests.

Some of the most significant matters contained in the Regulation are provided below:

Scope

Article 2 – (1) Any substance other than petroleum, natural gas, geothermal and water resources which are natural and economic value of the earth's crust and water resources is regarded as mine.

Classification of mines

Article 5 – (1) Mines in Group 1:

a) Sand and gravel, sand containing less than 80% SiO2, sand and gravels in the sea and river beds, irrespective of the material and SiO2 ratio which are used in construction and road construction and found naturally on earth,

b) Rocks, marls, pozzolanic rocks (tras) used in brick-tile shafts, cement shafts, dams, ponds and similar structures, used in cement and ceramics industries and not included in other groups,

1) Less than 25% Al2O3-containing killer,

2) Less than 50% montmorillonite mineral containing clays,

3) Clays containing less than 50% illite mineral,

4) Rocks containing less than 50% zeolite mineral,

5) The sum of Na2O and K2O is less than 5% and II. The rocks not included in the group,

6) In the clay group, kaolinite minerals are not present in the first order and kaolinite mineral content is less than 20%, more than 2% Fe2O3 and K2O, more than 1% Na2O and less than 44% SiO2.

(2) Group ll mines:

1. Building stones used in places such as roads, dams, ponds, harbors, fillings, retaining walls and other building walls without aggregate, gravel, geometric shapes from rocks such as calcite, dolomite, limestone, granite, andesite and basalt stones), ready-mixed concrete and rocks used in asphalt production,
2. Stones produced as blocks such as marble, travertine, onyx marble, granite, andesite, basalt, diabase, stones with geometric shapes and natural stones used for decoration purposes such as slate, slate, tuff, ignimbrite,

c) Rocks used as raw materials in the facilities for integrated cement, lime and calcite grinding, iron and steel plants, power plant and metal production from rocks such as calcite, dolomite, limestone, granite, andesite and basalt.

(3) Group lll mines

a) Salts in sea, lake and spring waters, carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, hydrogen sulphide (excluding the geothermal, natural gas and oil fields), hydrogen sulphide (with the provisions of Turkish Petroleum Law dated 30/5/2013 and numbered 6491). Gas and waters used for various purposes which do not fall within the scope of the Geothermal Resources and Natural Mineral Waters Law, No. 5686 dated 3/6/2007, containing group mines as a melt.

(4) Group lV mines

a) Industrial raw materials,

b) Energy raw materials,

c) Metallic mines,

ç) Radio-active minerals and other radio-active materials,

(5) Group v mines: Precious and semi-precious minerals.

Mining rights

Article 7 – (1) Mineral rights are given to Turkish citizens eligible to use marital rights, state-owned enterprises and institutions, its subsidiaries and affiliates of other public institutions, organizations and administrations, single natural or legal person on behalf of them,

2) Mines are licensed according to the groups specified in Article 5.

(3) The licenses granted under the law shall not be used for any other purpose.

(4) First application, searching license, exploration rights and business license rights on mines cannot be divided into shares. Each is treated as a whole.

Terms of license application

Article 10 – (1) Applications should be submitted according to the terms provided below:

a) The applications should be filed in the application area II. Group (b) owns 100 hectares in mines and IV. 2000 hectares in group mines, IV. Group license applications are made so that 50,000 hectares is not exceeded. 

b) Coordinates of the applied area are given as right (Y), up (X) in the direction of clockwise rotation. Applications are made in one polygon.

c) Applications are made through UTM Projection ED 50 Datum is based on a 6-degree slice, with the Y coordinate being six digits long, the X coordinate being seven digits long, with a 1/25000 scale sheet name, not exceeding ten points.

(2) Applications contrary to the principles in this article shall be deemed invalid. The application license for the application is not refundable.

The relevant regulation entered into force on 21 September 2017, the date of publication, and the provisions of the Regulation are enforced by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources.