On the morning of November 29, 446/448 delegates voted in favor, the National Assembly passed the Law on Geology and Minerals, effective from July 1, 2025.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

Regarding the auction of mineral exploitation rights, the newly passed law stipulates that areas not subject to auction are mineral areas demarcated to ensure energy security; ensure national defense, security, and effective use of strategic and important minerals.

The Law also stipulates that auctions shall not be conducted for mineral exploitation to ensure raw materials and supplies for important national projects, urgent public investment projects, works and construction items under national target programs.

The Law continues to assign the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to demarcate, submit to the Prime Minister for approval, and adjust areas where mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned under the licensing authority of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

At the local level, the Provincial People's Committee will organize the delimitation, approval and adjustment of areas where mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned under the licensing authority of the Provincial People's Committee.

The Government is also assigned to prescribe criteria for delimiting areas where mineral exploitation rights are not auctioned.

The newly passed law also adds a provision that the starting price in the auction of mineral exploitation rights is determined by the rate of collection of fees for granting mineral exploitation rights for the same type of mineral in the non-auction area. The price step is determined to be a minimum of 1% and a maximum of 10% of the starting price.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

Reporting on the acceptance and explanation of the draft law, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that some opinions suggested combining the mineral exploitation rights fee and resource tax to save time, costs and human resources of the State and enterprises.

However, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly believes that the mineral exploitation right fee and resource tax are different in terms of determination mechanism, collection, payment and do not overlap administrative procedures. The regulation on mineral resource right fee is consistent with the law on water resources. If the regulation on collecting the right fee is removed, there will be no basis for calculating the starting price when organizing the auction of mineral exploitation rights.

Therefore, the draft law continues to stipulate the fee for granting mineral exploitation rights and does not include it with the resource tax. At the same time, it is recommended that the Government continue to reform tax payment procedures and licensing fees to ensure convenience for organizations and individuals.

Each organization or individual is granted a maximum of 5 licenses to explore one type of mineral.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

The recently passed Law on Geology and Minerals also stipulates that each organization or individual is granted no more than five exploration licenses for one type of mineral, excluding expired mineral exploration licenses.

Reporting to the National Assembly, Mr. Le Quang Huy said that there was a proposal to add a regulation assigning the Government to regulate cases where an organization is granted more than 5 exploration licenses for a type of mineral to resolve problems related to the number of exploration licenses for energy minerals (coal) for the Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Group.

In response to delegates' opinions, the draft has added a provision that in cases where more than 5 licenses are granted to the same organization, written approval from the Prime Minister is required.

Regarding mineral exploitation licenses, Mr. Huy reflected that there were opinions suggesting adjusting the regulation that the licensing period should not exceed 50 years and the extension period should not exceed 15 years.

The National Assembly Standing Committee explained that minerals are public assets, and the implementation of mineral exploitation investment projects must have a different approach compared to other normal investment projects.

The Law stipulates that a mineral exploitation license has a term of no more than 30 years and can be renewed multiple times, but the total renewal period cannot exceed 20 years, for a total of 50 years, equal to the implementation period of a normal investment project as prescribed by the law on investment.