Should private owners be allowed to mine gold? Free search for gold in our country. What is “free mining” and who needs it? Draft law on free gold mining

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill on alluvial gold mining by individual enterprises. In preparation for the second reading, a working commission on the legal regulation of the mining of precious metals was created under the Committee on Ecology, Natural Resources and Environmental Management, which includes V. .

- Viktor Ivanovich, do you support the bill on individual entrepreneurship in gold mining?

This has already happened in the almost 300-year history of gold mining in Russia. It’s just that at different times such people were called differently - free workers, single miners, and even “predators” they were called.

And in the modern history of Russia - several years ago, the State Duma and the Federation Council already adopted a similar bill on liberation, but Vladimir Putin did not sign it then.

- What is the essence of this bill?

Everyone understands that gold production in Russia will not increase with this law. The main idea of ​​the bill is to solve social issues, supposedly there is an unemployed population in the regions.

- Yes, there are estimates that an individual entrepreneur /IP/ can earn over 2 million rubles per season from gold.

Two million rubles is about 2 kg of gold, if we take into account today’s price - 1,300 rubles per gram.

In artels, with a team of several dozen people, on alluvial deposits, an average of 1.5 kg of gold is mined per person. At the same time, they are armed with powerful bulldozers, instruments, and electricity, and they cannot produce more than 1.5 kg in a season. If you subtract all costs - fuel, depreciation, spare parts, taxes, etc., approximately 15 percent of the cost of mined gold remains for wages. If we multiply 1,300 rubles by 15 percent, then we get a salary per gram of gold of about 200 rubles.

I am sure that a person alone cannot do more than in a team.

- What do you think a person can do alone?

The starting capital for equipment, including a wheelbarrow, pickaxe, shovel and pump, will not exceed 50 thousand rubles, plus food. In order to go into the taiga for 3-4 months, you need to deliver all this equipment and food there.

What is the productivity of a person driving a wheelbarrow? First, you need to open up about 6 meters of peat. Previously, the norm for stripping was 20 cubic meters in 12 hours, this is wild work. And in order to wash gold, these sands must be crushed / crushed with a pick /, especially in those areas where there is permafrost.

Let's take the average content - 0.4 grams per cubic meter of sand, this is at best. In one hundred days of hard, exhausting physical labor, he will be able to mine 50 grams of gold, which is estimated at about 70 thousand rubles, which will be 20 thousand rubles per month.

Firstly, no one will work like this alone, and secondly, in any gold mining enterprise they now pay up to 40 thousand rubles per month, which is twice as much. What prevents you from going to work at a company?

And if there are several - 2-3 people, then what prevents you from organizing your own LLC or CJSC?

- So, in your opinion, this law is not needed?

To consider such a bill, you need to understand the state of the industry. It is necessary, first of all, to understand the mining and geological conditions - these are the average gold content in the sands, which today are already measured in fractions of a gram per cubic meter and peat, which must be removed before you get to the sands.

I have been working in gold since 1959, and I can give the following example: when Dalstroy began mining gold in 1932, the average content in Kolyma was 27 grams per cubic meter of sand. During the season, only 2 million cubic meters were washed and 54 tons of gold were obtained. In 1957, the average gold content had already dropped to almost 2 grams per cubic meter.

So there is no longer a gram content in placers. Now some dredges, for example in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, wash sand containing 70 mg - it is necessary to wash a million cubic meters of sand to get 80 kg of gold.

Now the overburden of peat in the Bodaibinsky district (Irkutsk region) reaches 50 m. Of course, such overburden is not everywhere, but its volume has increased sharply: 5-6 m is considered very light overburden. Many artels, in order to avoid overburden, switched to the underground method of sand mining.

There, in Bodaibo, the Vitim artel produces more than two tons of gold annually, of which approximately 400 kg is obtained by processing 160-180 thousand cubic meters of sand mined underground. For them, underground gold costs 2 times less than gold from open-pit mining, because there is no need to remove this sea of ​​peat. But this is mine sinking, this is a compressor, this is drilling and blasting, etc.

Now I ask you - what of all this can a person do alone?

- What about social problems?

I don’t understand what social problems they are talking about in the regions. Last year I drove along the entire Kolyma highway - 1200 km from Magadan. And I didn’t see villages with unemployed people, with crying children - they don’t exist. Stoves stick out from burnt houses, some villages have been completely destroyed - yes. Orotukan, once the largest village in the region, is all abandoned. But there are no socially disadvantaged people. Let's take the Irkutsk region, which today produces the most alluvial gold - about 13 tons. Where are the abandoned villages with unemployed people?

Tell me why each year the Magadan and Irkutsk regions issue quotas to attract 6 thousand foreign workers, most of whom work in gold mining enterprises. Why are local unemployed people not attracted to these positions? Yes, because they themselves don’t want to.

These unemployed people are already declassed elements, forgive the harshness. And do you think that tomorrow, when this law is adopted, they will all take wheelbarrows and shovels and start digging tens of cubic meters of peat and washing the sand?

Anyone who wants to work can always go to any gold mining enterprise and they will hire him.

- That is, are you against the adoption of this bill?

I am categorically AGAINST free-flowing food. Individual entrepreneurship in gold mining is deceiving people. In addition to the hard work that we talked about, the entrepreneur will face the whole bunch of tax payments /except for personal income tax/ - he automatically falls under the law on individual entrepreneurship, read it. At the same time, no one cancels other regulations, for example, on mining operations, and this includes licensing, development and protection of the project, etc. - no one talks about this.

- But there is an opinion that with this law the illegal circulation of gold will stop and there will be less theft.

I believe that the passage of this bill will open up MORE opportunities for banditry.

For example. Artels, as a rule, work in the remote taiga. At night, unknown people in masks go to the mining sites with sawn-off shotguns, approach the industrial equipment, there are 5-6 workers there - no one wants to expose themselves to bullets - they go away. These guys come up, open the deck, take the gold and leave.

Now the possession of gold by an individual without the appropriate documents is a criminal offense. It's scary to steal and scary to sell. Because you found a buyer, came to him, sold it, took the money, and around the corner the buyer’s accomplices hit you on the head, and you are without gold and money.

And in the new conditions, if you stole it, you can come and say that you panned for gold. A couple of times I went into two devices with a sawed-off shotgun, stole a kilogram and rested for myself. Therefore, the bulk of those unemployed will begin to steal.

So this law, on the contrary, will open the way to theft and banditry. Even if someone in the taiga honestly mines, a shooter will easily approach him, take the gold and leave. Gold is still a dangerous business, but a new floodgate will open here.

- But if such a bill is proposed, then a problem exists. What solution can you offer?

Of course, people who are ready to mine gold alone need help.

If some area is allocated without a competition or auction, let the head of the nearest gold mining enterprise receive it, and let him conclude an agreement with the individual who wants to work. We have 406 such enterprises in the Magadan region, Yakutia, Irkutsk region - throughout the Far East.

You decided to work with a strike, a shovel and a pick, I enter into an agreement with you, and you begin to work. You hand over the gold to me, but at the same time I provide you with food. If there is a large overburden, I will send a bulldozer, and all you have to do is wash out the sand.

I will provide you with security, report to government agencies, for flushing, for stripping, and pay taxes for everything. At today's 1300 rubles per gram, I will pay you 800 rubles. This is despite the fact that you receive support from me. If you wash a kilogram, you get 800 thousand rubles.

Thus, it will be clear that this is not thieves’ gold and it will be clear how many people work as individual entrepreneurs. Let there be 2 thousand of them, and if they all together wash 500-600 kg in a season, you have to try very hard, then in general for Russia it’s still a drop. And from the point of view of social employment, I have already said that if there were normal people there who wanted to work, they would have gotten a job and worked long ago.

- How do you feel about artisanal tourism?

I saw this artisanal tourism more than twenty years ago, in Alaska. We were told that tourist-miners pay $50, they are taken somewhere to waste landfills, they are given a tray, a pick, a shovel, a wheelbarrow in their hands and they are told, “here there might be gold.” And they wash, if they wash something, they can take this gold with them. The main thing in this is not so much the gold, but the interest in being in the shoes of a prospector, as in the stories of Jack London.

I saw the same thing in New Zealand. You can even buy gold in nuggets there. I asked if anyone was buying, and they told me that no one was buying. It is not known how much gold is in a nugget.

The Finns have the same experience, but they don’t have gold in Finland, they plant it there specifically for tourists.

At one time we wanted to organize something similar on Lake Baikal, where we once panned for gold in the rivers, but we were not allowed. We wanted to go to Sakhalin, but they didn’t allow it either. They wanted to build real huts there, like natural miners, and so that everything would be there - a pick, a walk-through, a shovel, and a crowbar.

- Why weren’t they allowed?

For various reasons. They say that Baikal is a monument of world natural heritage, and nothing is allowed near it.

You can lure people to Baikal not so much with gold as with Baikal itself. Fish, yachts, the nature around Baikal is truly unique.

- What problems do miners have now, what is your Union doing?

We are resolving issues related to the entire gold mining industry - a lot of effort went into getting the Drazhnik artel to renew its license in Yakutia, where they operate five dredges. There is a village, a kindergarten, a school, and the artel maintains all this, but their license was not renewed.

Now we are working on weapons. How to protect gold at gold mining enterprises and refineries? They offer to hire private security companies, but who are our private security companies? Most of them are dismissed law enforcement officers who need to be paid more than the miners themselves.

The state does not allocate a single penny for the exploration of placer gold. Under Soviet rule, there was a strict law: we had to increase reserves more than we extracted. For example, 200 tons of gold were mined, which means 250 tons must be obtained as a result of geological exploration. And our reserves did not decrease.

Previously, all enterprises paid royalties for the reproduction of the mineral resource base, in particular, for gold we paid 7.8% of the cost of mined gold. It was canceled in the 90s - what were you thinking? Later, however, they introduced a mineral extraction tax, which was made up of the former tax - 2% on gold, plus - 3.9% (50% of the value for the reproduction of the mineral resource base), we get 5.9%. That is, we now pay a 6% tax on production, but no funds are allocated for exploration.

Look at what is being put up for auction: reserves of 5, 10, 30 kg, the rest are all forecast resources - it is unknown whether there will be gold there or not, and one-time payments are taken for 10 - 15 million rubles. According to the law, there is a minimum payment, it is equal to 10% of the annual mineral extraction tax fund, and the maximum is unlimited. So they increase it by 17-18 times.

And if there is only one participant, the auction is declared invalid. Why not give this one participant a license? After all, he intends to work in this area.

I believe that if at least these issues are resolved, there will be more benefits than the adoption of a law on individual entrepreneurship in gold mining!

If the State Duma passes the law, it will be easy for any of us to start the life of a free prospector and go for the bird of luck to the Vitim, Tsipikan and other gold-bearing rivers of Buryatia.

For more than 200 years of Russian gold mining history, “black” prospecting is not a new profession. News of taiga riches attracted tens of thousands of fortune hunters. At different times, people who individually mine the yellow metal were called free workers, lone miners, and even predators.

"Black Digging"

In Buryatia, the history of “black mining” goes back to 1844, when in the territory of the present Bauntovsky district, 7 spools of 9 shares, that is, 30 grams 216 milligrams of yellow metal, were mined at the Mariinsky and Innokentyevsky mines. In just 10-15 years, as Vladimir Kozulin, a well-known local historian of the Bauntovsky district, says, all the rivers, springs and valleys of Vitim, Vitimkan, Chyna, Tsipa, Tsipikan were excavated by gold miners. Thus began the gold rush in the Barguzin taiga, as Baunt was called until 1925. A major gold miner in the Barguzin taiga, Yakov Frizer, in his book “Gold Mining in the Barguzin District and Its Needs,” published in Moscow in 1901, writes:

At the Solovyovsky mines, due to the rich gold content, work became more active. The days of widespread mining revelry have returned. The workers went out to work, which lasted only a few hours, in smart boots, flannel blouses and beaver hats, with watches in their pockets and rings in their hands. Some appeared in fox beshmets and silk sashes, bought at an expensive price from the shoulders of the manager himself...

Here, a gold miner wrote about those who sometimes worked as hired workers in the mines for meager pay. But there were free searchers and gold miners in the taiga, working alone or in small close-knit teams. They relied on their own strength, skill and, of course, luck. More than one hundred and fifty years have passed since then, but even now there are many such people. According to the Union of Gold Miners of the Russian Federation, in the main gold-bearing regions of the country - Chukotka, Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk and Trans-Baikal Territories, Magadan, Amur and Irkutsk regions, and the Republic of Buryatia, a total of more than 12 thousand people are engaged in mining.

"Golden Initiative"

According to the chairman of the People's Khural Committee on Economic Policy of the Republic of Belarus, Anatoly Kushnarev, the law on “free income” is being discussed in the State Duma, perhaps it will be adopted this year. However, until the law is adopted in its final reading, even the smallest handful of precious grains found by the police in a person’s pocket threatens to result in a prison term of two to seven years. This is what Article 191 of the Criminal Code says.

The issue of legalizing the free supply of gold was raised with renewed vigor at the interparliamentary association “Parliamentary Association of the North-West of Russia” and the Parliamentary Association “Far East and Transbaikalia” recently held in Blagoveshchensk. Buryatia was represented at this forum by deputies Tsydenzhap Batuev and Anatoly Kushnarev.

Another interesting proposal is to issue permission for gold mining for the population according to a simplified system on dumps, where dredging has already taken place, but there is still precious metal left, - said Anatoly Kushnarev.

"For" and "against"

The general director of the “Zapadnaya” Mining Artel from the Muisky district, Valery Nazarov, expressed the position of the republic’s prospectors.

The position of the majority of mining enterprises towards the adoption of this law is extremely negative. All positive expected aspects will be offset, first of all, by an increase, I am sure that this will be the case, thefts from operating mining enterprises. We are lobbying against this law and, I think, will not be adopted. I’m not saying that only our organization is against it, this is also the majority of gold mining enterprises represented by the chairman of the Union of Prospectors and the chairman of the Union of Gold Miners of Russia Sergei Kashub,” said Valery Nazarov.

Supporters of the legalization of free income do not expect a large economic effect or a significant increase in gold mining due to this law. But recognition of free income is important from a social perspective, according to supporters of the bill. By the way, Chairman of the Magadan Regional Duma Sergei Abramov spoke about this at the interparliamentary association in Blagoveshchensk. He spoke about the experience of the pilot region. According to him, the “free supply” did not lead to an increase in gold production, but significantly reduced social tension.

A difficult issue for the region is the permission of free food. Modern Russian legislation does not provide for the use of non-industrial placers, said the head of the Bauntovsky Evenki district Nikolai Kovalev. - To obtain permission to mine gold, it is necessary to conduct exploration, calculate and approve reserves. In non-industrial placers there are no reserves (by definition), and there are no approved reserves - there is no permission to mine. It is necessary to amend the legislation so that licenses can be issued for the extraction of gold from non-industrial placers.

The northerners raised this issue in March during the visit of the acting governor. head of Alexey Tsydenov in the Bauntovsky district. Not long ago, the Bauntovsky district made proposals to the agenda of the congress of deputies of all levels, which will be held in Ulan-Ude in October. Chairman of the Council of Deputies Alexander Ochirov proposed re-entering the federal level with a law “on the free supply” of gold.

Prospector means to try

In his memoirs, a pensioner, former site manager of the Iskra mining artel in the Bauntovsky district, V.I. Krasnoyarov writes: “After all, it was like it used to be, before 1954, I took a gram and passed it. They received the money right away, and no one asked where they got it. After the war, front-line soldiers themselves organized metal mining and conducted exploration. After all, I had to feed my family. And schoolchildren also worked on gold all summer. From the age of 15, he panned gold with his father, 15 km from the Borovsky site. They used butara, a passageway, to thaw the sands in winter, they carried firewood on horses, and sawed it by hand. The prospectors of former times know how it was. It was a difficult time, but no one complained about any crisis because everyone was busy with business. Why not remember this experience now, while there are still old miners who remember how to do it? After all, this method of extraction also has its own characteristics and specifics. They could teach young people in special courses. The area has always relied on mining. But after working with the equipment, there remains rock in each side for manual extraction. The free supply is beneficial to everyone, and, first of all, to the region. These include contributions to the budget and new jobs.”

Mining tourism

By the way, the main argument of opponents of free mining is: “The state will not be able to control the work of miners.” In their opinion, the legalization of free trade will not lead to any noticeable increase in gold production. On a national scale, this will amount to hundreds of kilograms, that is, a fraction of a percent. And today, without the adoption of a law, a large number of people are engaged in gold mining using primitive manual methods. And they are forced, willingly or unwillingly, to come into conflict with the law. Some of them fall under the control of criminal structures.

Most countries have long accepted “free supply” as a given and realized that there is no reason to ban mining. Ultimately, the precious metal will still end up in the state treasury. In the USA, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia, “gold or gold mining tourism” has even gained popularity. For a modest fee, the mines give you a prospecting tray and invite you to try your luck.

Help website
The draft law provides that in depleted industrial sites, alluvial and small deposits with reserves of up to 10-15 kilograms of gold, private individuals will be allowed to mine precious metals. At the moment, there are thousands of sites in Russia where gold reserves are less than 10 kg. They are of no interest for industrial mining, but private entrepreneurs could continue to wash the gold that remains after mining the placers. In order for individual entrepreneurs to be able to pan for gold, according to the authors of the bill, it is necessary to simplify the procedures for access to subsoil for Russian citizens, issue them simplified licenses for the use of sites without a competition (auction), introduce a simplified taxation system for them, as well as a simplified procedure for accepting gold. Now individual mining of gold, silver and non-ferrous metals, which existed in Tsarist Russia and even in the Soviet Union until 1954 inclusive, is prohibited in our country.

Finally there is news about gold mining in our country. On July 31, 2017, the final version of the bill was published on the federal portal of draft regulatory legal acts, which allows individual entrepreneurs to mine gold in Russia.

The bill provides for amendments to the Federal Law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” and to the Law of the Russian Federation “On Subsoil”. The full and detailed text of the document can be found at the link.

And now - briefly about the content of the future legislative act. By the way, it has not yet been adopted, and the status indicates that the bill is under consideration by the Russian government.

Quote:

“Extraction of precious metals, extraction of precious stones can be carried out exclusively by legal entities, and in cases provided for by this Federal Law, also by individual entrepreneurs who have received, in the manner established by this Federal Law, the Law of the Russian Federation “On Subsoil” and other federal laws, a license to use of subsoil."

Where can gold be mined?

• Within the borders of the Magadan region.
• Only in the territory of alluvial deposits, where the state has taken into account the gold reserve of no more than 10 kg.
• The list of sites will be established and published on the Internet by the Magadan Department of the State Subsoil Fund.
• Each plot will be no more than 0.15 square meters. km.
• It will not be possible to dig deeper than 5 meters.
• An individual entrepreneur must apply for one plot and use only that plot.

How will it be possible to mine gold?

• personally, without involving other persons on a contractual basis,
• without the use of blasting operations,
• without the use of mining, drilling geological exploration equipment,
• without earthmoving machines, industrial tractors,
• without quarry development and maintenance.

Another separate point that cannot but rejoice is that the development and approval of technical projects and other project documentation is not required!

Here, perhaps, are all the main points of the finalized bill. According to some reports, it may be adopted as early as this year.

In this regard, we remind you: the area of ​​the Magadan region is 462,464 square meters. km. If we compare, this is literally the entire Central Federal District (Central Federal District), only without the Tver, Yaroslavl and Kostroma regions. The whole of Germany can be located on the territory of the Magadan Territory and there will be room, for example, for the Czech Republic. That is, there is more than enough space for gold miners.

After the adoption of the bill, the most suitable means for individual entrepreneurs to mine gold will be a metal detector. A large selection of metal detectors for gold mining is available in MDRegion stores.

Gold is a precious metal, the basis of the financial system of all humanity and any individual country at almost all times. That is why gold mining has been the most important activity from ancient times to our time.

Today gold mining in Russia is carried out by individuals; a license for this type of activity is required. However, this area has undergone many changes.

Gold mining in Russia today and in the past

In our country, it is officially believed that gold mining in Russia by private individuals, the discovery of mines, and the activities of entire corporations have been carried out on an industrial scale since the 18th century. It is obvious that gold was mined in small quantities in previous centuries. And this is no coincidence. Nature has provided Russia with many rich alluvial deposits available for development in almost all parts of the country.

Modern Russia is one of the leaders in gold mining. Gold is found in all parts of the country. Since the Middle Ages, the Urals, Siberia, the Far East, etc. have been famous. There is gold in closer regions, although in smaller quantities - in the Moscow region, Leningrad region. Gold production in Russia at the present stage is more than 250 tons per year. Based on the results of last year, our country has secured one of the leading places in the overall production of precious metals.

Forms of activity of gold miners

The field of activity of active and energetic people has always been vast and varied. Gold mining, although dangerous at times, does not necessarily require a high-tech base and large financial resources. Gold mining can be carried out by individuals, large firms, and government agencies. At the same time, the Russian state either took an active role in gold mining or outsourced gold mining in Russia to individuals. At the present stage, corporations such as Kinross Gold, OJSC Yuzhuralzoloto, OJSC Severstal, etc. are mainly involved in gold. Until recently, gold mining in Russia by individuals was practiced in much smaller quantities.

Passivity of private gold mining

Reasons that contributed to the passivity of free miners:

1. Technical. In the modern technological world, gold is mined primarily during the daily activities of mining and processing plants and individual special machines - dredges. Industrial gold mining is much more efficient; manual labor cannot be compared with machine labor.
2. Legal. Even in modern times, the state has for a long time limited the activities of small non-governmental organizations and individuals. Until recent years, the law openly sided with large companies.

Reasons for the continued work of private gold miners

Nevertheless, technical and legal restrictions could not and cannot stop private gold miners. Firstly, not all deposits are suitable for industrial development. Some of them are simply unprofitable - their cost due to relief, geographical and economic conditions is higher than the cost of the production obtained. Large enterprises will not deal with gold in this case. Gold mining in Russia by individuals in small shares is more relevant than large-scale mining. There are many deposits with a small concentration of precious metal; the state not only cannot control them, but sometimes it is not even able to register them. At the beginning of the 21st century, small deposits of gold are being discovered even in regions that have never panned for gold.

Secondly, gold laundering by unorganized miners in abandoned deposits undoubtedly has positive aspects: a “web” of road routes to mining sites, low demands on the professional level of workers, and the potential for using more primitive, inexpensive tools. There is an officially non-operating field in the Amur region. The search for gold went on there for more than a hundred years. However, a large volume of precious metal was raised from the ground, so free miners will find something to look for. Gold mining in Russia by private individuals in abandoned mines is currently increasing.

History of private gold mining during the USSR

A definite problem is the lack of significant experience in private gold mining. Gold mining in Russia by individuals has not been permitted since 1954. The Stalin era was freer. The state included additional payments for gold miners and gave them the right to develop the richest gold mines. To intensify labor, they distributed housing, vouchers to sanatoriums, etc. Before the Great Patriotic War, every resident of the country over 18 years of age who had not previously received a criminal punishment had the right to work as a miner. The number of gold miners operating separately or in non-governmental organizations reached 120 thousand.

The resulting gold was handed over to countless specialized points. Gold mining in Russia at mines by private individuals, their discovery has brought significant benefits. Then the deposits became state owned. The precious metal in Russia was mainly obtained in the east: in the Urals, in Siberia, where the Bolsheviks did not immediately find themselves after the revolution. Gold mining enterprises found themselves in the hands of one political force, then another. The losers, when leaving, destroyed equipment, disabled mines, and did not allow workers to function.

The Decline of Private Gold Mining during the Civil War

During the Civil War, gold mining was almost completely put out of action. If on the eve of the revolution gold mining in the country decreased, then with the beginning of the civil confrontation it fell even more. In 1918, a total of 30 tons of gold were mined, and on the eve of the war the total mass was 64 tons per year. There was no private gold mining law (or any other gold mining law).

In subsequent years, they received less and less gold. In 1920, 2.8 tons were mined, and in 1921 - only 2.5 tons. However, during the years of the existence of free miners (1932-1941), the volume of precious metal obtained increased several times.

As already noted, in 1954, by decision of the Soviet state, the work of free miners in the extraction of precious metal was prohibited. After the collapse of the USSR, the illegal production of precious metals annually amounted to about 15-20 tons - 10% of the legal volume.

Modern times

In recent decades, some changes in the field of gold mining have occurred. Against the backdrop of ongoing changes at the present stage, strict restrictions in gold mining do not seem entirely logical and understandable. Gold mining in Russia by individuals required a license. Gold mining and its licensing are limited by the Federal Law “On Subsoil” No. 2395-1, which was included in those in force in the first year of the existence of the Russian state, and the Federal Law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” No. 41-FZ, put into effect in 1998 .

The law on gold mining in Russia by individuals provides that the extraction of gold is carried out only by legal entities who have taken permission (license). The government agency distributing licenses is the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use - Rosnedra and its organizations in the provinces. A permit is required for gold mining in Russia by individuals.

Obtaining a gold mining license

The instructions for obtaining a permit consist of the following mandatory steps:

1. Area reconnaissance, the subsoil of which is recommended by the state for sale at an auction or competition (such information is available on the Internet on government websites, all messages are publicly available on the website of Rosnedra and regional branches).
2. Submitting a requirement to participate in a public auction or competition, obtaining a number of official documents determined by the competitive (auction) conditions.
3. The participant who received first place in the bidding (auction), and will win a gold mining license.

As a rule, gold mining in Russia by individuals (a license is required) is permitted for 20-25 years or for the period of completed gold production at the mine. A document can be officially recognized from the moment of state registration.

In our country from 1992 to 1998. Any residents of Russia received permission to explore this precious metal even without the proper official document from the state structure. Since 1998, free miners have lost many rights: they could only work in organizations that have obtained gold mining licenses. In particular, gold mining in Russia is now carried out by individuals with a license.

Legislative changes

Only in 2016, Dmitry Medvedev, marking the next stage of liberalization in the field of gold mining, approved changes to the law “On Subsoil”. They concerned gold mining in Russia by individuals (2016 - new edition).

According to this legislative document, from the beginning of 2017, private gold mining in Russia was once again allowed. The law provided for the possibility of renting a land area of ​​0.15 square meters for a certain period of time. m, which, according to professionals, can produce up to ten kilograms of gold. However, when mining gold, it is necessary to take into account that there are several requirements:

• metal must be obtained only by the surface method;
• It is prohibited to use explosives in work;
• You can use a layer of earth up to five meters deep.

Today, gold mining in Russia by private individuals (a license will avoid problems with the law) can result in a fine of several thousand rubles. In this case, the miner will also be left without tools purchased specifically for obtaining precious metal. And if it turns out that the suspect has gold worth more than one million rubles, there is also criminal liability. A similar case concerns the mining of a mine that is the property of a company engaged in gold mining.

Positive aspects of changes to the law "On Subsoil"

Even taking into account all these facts, many believe that the adopted law has many positive consequences:

• additional revenues to the budget - it is assumed that the government will earn about 300 kg of gold annually;
• good support for strengthening small and medium-sized businesses in provincial areas;
• creation of additional jobs and increased self-employment of the population;
• growth of residents in populated areas of sparsely populated regions.

However, the increase in the number of private miners leads to the danger of increased corruption and banditry, since this is a very convenient environment for committing crimes. Strict state control and a clear legal framework can stop such a process.

The procedure for handing over the mined precious metal will be determined after the legislative and regulatory act is approved at the federal level. Later, on the ground, government officials will be able to make the necessary changes to regional legislation.

In conclusion

With the adoption of the law, Russia can be ranked among the leading countries where not only the industrial production of precious metals is developed, but also gold mining (in Russia, i.e. on the territory) by individuals. The growth of gold mining is possible, but not only because of the large deposits of the precious metal, but also because fresh gold deposits are being steadily studied in Russia, the latest technologies are emerging, and the needs of individual entrepreneurs and small organizations are being taken into account.

The State Duma adopted a law on free speech

According to the amendment to the law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones”, individual entrepreneurs can conduct mining under licenses, but only in subsoil areas of local importance that are not objects of industrial development.

Video. Fresh amendments to the law on gold mining. Film directed by Rudolf Kavczyk

IA "Finmarket" The State Duma adopted in the second reading a bill granting the right to mine and produce precious metals and precious stones (with the exception of diamonds) to individuals without forming a legal entity who have passed state registration as individual entrepreneurs. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, the document was supported by 267 deputies, 1 was against it. In accordance with the bill, individual entrepreneurs can mine precious metals and stones in subsoil areas of exclusively local importance, which in quantitative and qualitative terms are not objects of industrial development. This includes “residual reserves in overburden and host rocks, in dumps or in mining waste, substandard or previously written-off reserves, and other manifestations of ores and sands of precious metals of indigenous, placer and technogenic origin.” The right of individuals to engage in the production and extraction of precious metals and stones, according to the bill, arises from the moment of state registration of licenses for the use of the relevant subsoil areas. Source: Rosbalt

FEDERAL LAW On amendments and additions to the Federal Law

Article 1. Introduce the following changes to the Federal Law of March 26, 1998 No. 41-FZ “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” (Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation, 1998, No. 13, Art. 1463; 1999, No. 14, Art. 1664) and additions:

1. In Article 4: paragraph 1 shall be stated as follows: 1. Extraction of precious metals and precious stones may be carried out by organizations that have received licenses to use the relevant subsoil areas. Extraction of precious metals and precious stones (with the exception of diamonds) can also be carried out by individuals - citizens of the Russian Federation, registered as individual entrepreneurs and who have received licenses to use the relevant subsoil plots of local significance.";

Paragraph 5 should be stated as follows: 5. The right of organizations and individual entrepreneurs specified in paragraph 1 of this article to extract precious metals and precious stones arises from the moment of state registration of licenses for the use of subsoil plots.";

Add paragraph 6 with the following content: 6. Individual entrepreneurs specified in paragraph 1 of this article may mine precious metals and precious stones in subsoil areas of local importance, which in quantitative and qualitative terms are not objects of industrial development: residual reserves in overburden and host rocks, in dumps or waste from mining operations, substandard or previously written-off reserves, other manifestations of ores and sands of precious metals of indigenous, placer and technogenic origin."

2. In Article 11: paragraph two of subparagraph 4 should be stated as follows: “the procedure for accounting, storage of precious metals and precious stones and products made from them, as well as the procedure for reporting on them. The Government of the Russian Federation has the right to transfer the specified powers to the state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in relation to individual entrepreneurs specified in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of this Federal Law;".

3. In Article 15: paragraph 3, add the following paragraph: “Individual entrepreneurs specified in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of this Federal Law extract precious metals and precious stones on their own.”

4. In Article 29: paragraph one of paragraph 1 after the words “carrying out operations with precious metals and precious stones,” add the words “as well as individual entrepreneurs specified in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of this Federal Law.”

Article 2. This Federal Law comes into force on the date of its official publication.

President

Russian Federation

On introducing amendments to Article 17 of the Federal Law

"On Precious Metals and Precious Stones"

Article 1. Clause 3 of Article 17 of the Federal Law of March 26, 1998 No. 41-FZ “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” (Collection of Legislation of the Russian Federation, 1998, No. 13, Art. 1463) shall be supplemented with the following paragraph: “Specially authorized federal The executive authority that carries out licensing of the types of activities specified in subparagraphs 2, 8 and 11 of paragraph 4 of Article 15 of this Federal Law may transfer such powers to the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation."

Article 2. Instruct the Government of the Russian Federation and state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to bring their regulatory legal acts into compliance with this Federal Law within three months from the date of official publication of this Federal Law.

Article 3. This Federal Law comes into force on the date of its official publication. Law Firm "Legal Solutions for Business" (linkhttp://www.lbp.ru/texts/o%20drag_2.html )

HELLO KLONDIKE!

Every honest citizen can mine gold. In the near future, each of us will be able to pick up a tray and legally go mining for gold. On April 11, 2003, the State Duma adopted the corresponding bill in the second reading. Experts in the gold mining industry are divided in their assessment of the document: some believe that cases of gold theft will increase, others argue that thousands of people will stop engaging in gold crime and become honest miners. Amendments to the law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones,” which allow individuals to mine precious metals and precious stones, were proposed by the now deceased governors of the gold regions of the Magadan Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Valentin Tsvetkov and Alexander Lebed. Since the bill has now passed the second reading, its fate can be considered practically sealed - in the final, third reading, deputies usually make only technical amendments. So, soon every citizen of the country will receive the right to extract all jewelry from the subsoil (with the exception of diamonds). However, before that he will have to register as an individual entrepreneur. The “free traders” are unlikely to succeed in ousting the large gold miners. They will be allocated areas that have not been in demand and are not even on the balance sheet of deposits. The chairman of the board of the Union of Prospectors, Viktor Tarakanovsky, has a negative attitude towards private individuals entering gold plots. “This will lead to nothing other than stealing gold,” says the miner. The head of the Union of Gold Miners, Valery Braiko, does not agree with his colleague’s opinion. “This will help a number of socially vulnerable categories of citizens to work in those places where there is no industrial development of gold, and they will be able to earn extra money,” Valery Braiko told Financial Izvestia. The chairman of the board of directors of the largest gold mining enterprise in Russia, Polyus, Valery Rudakov says that he has a positive attitude towards the bill: “Now people are forced to wash gold in inconvenient waste dumps. Physically, a person can mine 2 grams of gold per day. That is, there are colossal opportunities from them The state will not get the work of free workers. But we will bring thousands of people out of the shadow circulation of gold. “Freedom of gold was allowed under Stalin, and there is nothing wrong with that.” And those who object to this are pursuing their own obscure interests.” This year Russia will produce about 180 tons of gold. According to experts, shadow turnover accounts for about 10% of production in Russia. But this figure includes not only the labor of private individuals, but also cases of theft in gold mines. Valery Braiko says that private individuals currently produce no more than a ton of gold per year, and when their work becomes legal, they will be able to increase production to a maximum of 3 tons. However, the entry into force of amendments to the law “On Precious Metals...” will not automatically solve the problem of free-bearing. Valery Braiko says that it will be necessary to make a number of changes to the legislation so that private individuals begin work not on the basis of a license, but with the permission of municipal authorities. In order to stimulate the work of private gold miners, they “should also be allowed to sell spot gold to banks.” “Much here will depend on the initiative of local authorities,” concludes Braiko.

On April 23, 2003, the State Duma adopted the law in the third reading"On Amendments and Additions to the Federal Law "On Drugs" metals and precious metals stones." Now the law must receive the approval of the Federation Council, after which it will be signed by the president.