Applying for an extension of the mining license

A mining permit for the exploration of one or more mineral resources is initially granted for a maximum of 5 years. Once these 5 years have expired, you can extend the permit for a further 3 years under certain conditions. You must apply for such an extension.

There are 3 types of mining permits:

• Permit for commercial purposes: exclusive right to discover deposits and determine their extent,
• Permit for scientific purposes: exclusively for research purposes and
• Permission for large-scale exploration: to determine the characteristics of possible deposits.

The exploration permit does not allow you to implement any technical measures, such as drilling or seismic surveys. The permit only allows you to explore mineral resources in the permit area granted to you. A commercial permit for a specific mineral resource cannot be covered by another commercial permit for the same mineral resource at the same surface location .

This does not apply to scientific and large-scale exploration of non-mining mineral resources, as the exploration objective is different here.
The permit under mining law extends to so-called non-mining mineral resources that are of special r importance to the economy as a whole. These include energy resources such as hard coal and lignite or crude oil and natural gas, as well as precious and non-ferrous metals and salts. The area covered by the permit is limited to the earth's surface and theoretically extends to the center of the earth.

Requirements

Certain requirements must be met before you can extend the permit:

• You are the holder of an exploration permit.
• The permit field could not be sufficiently investigated after the expiry of the permit despite planned exploration coordinated with the competent authority.