MOSCOW, December 22 Senators approved a law on the procedure for subsoil users to assess predicted mineral resources, verification and recording of the results of this assessment.
The document was developed in pursuance of the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the purpose of legislative regulation of the system for assessing and accounting for predicted mineral resources. According to the law, the assessment of such resources is carried out during a geological study of the subsoil in accordance with the approved project documentation.
Subsoil users carry out the assessment at their own expense, if this is provided for in the project documentation, or budget funds, if this is provided for in a government contract or state assignment. The assessment results will be included in geological reports that subsoil users submit to the Federal Geological Information Fund and its territorial funds.
These results are subject to testing, that is, checking the reliability and compliance of the assessment with the classifications of reserves and predicted mineral resources. Approbation is organized by Rosnedra or their territorial bodies and carried out by a commission created by them. The procedure and timing of its implementation will be established by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. Based on the results of testing, a decision is made on the reliability (unreliability) of the assessment and its compliance (inconsistency) with the classification of reserves and forecast resources, formalized by a positive (negative) conclusion.
A positive conclusion is the basis for registering predicted resources in the state deposit cadastre and including this information in a unified fund of geological information about the subsoil. If the conclusion is negative, the relevant information is included only in the unified fund of geological information about the subsoil.
The law also provides that the Government of the Russian Federation will establish a procedure for the preparation, coordination and approval of project documentation for the development of technologies for geological study, exploration and production of hard-to-recover minerals.
The law should come into force on September 1, 2024.