Member Article

On January 22, 2021, the Federal Official Gazette published Resolution No. 55, by means of which the National Mining Agency (“ANM”) amends Resolutions No. 28/2020 and 46/2020, which deal with the suspension of deadlines of certain procedural and material acts under its competence, and the extension of the terms of mineral titles, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the new wording, the suspension period which started on March 20, 2020 is extended until June 30, 2021, in the following cases: 

• Submission of defenses, oppositions and appeals in mining administrative proceedings;

• Compliance with requirements;

• Submission of partial and final exploration reports;

• Request for extension of Exploration License;

• Application for mining concession;

• Request for the extension of the extraction permit, license registry, small-scale/alluvial mining license and extraction registry, notice of the beginning or resumption of the exploration works, and application for vesting of possession of the deposit;

• All the other deadlines established in the Brazilian Mining Code (Decree-Law No. 227/67), its regulation (Decree No. 9.406/2018) and Ordinance No. 155/2016, which approved the DNPM Normative Consolidation, which regulates acts within the competence of the ANM;

• Compliance with the requirements established in Article 27 of the Mineral Water Code (Decree-Law No. 7,841/1945), with respect to the performance of periodic, partial or complete chemical analysis, and, at least, a complete analysis every three years to check its composition and classification; and

• Maximum deadlines for analysis of requests for public acts authorizing economic activities, subject to tacit approval, under the competence of the ANM, according to Annex I of Resolution No. 22, of January 30, 2020.
  
  

In addition, sensitive to the difficulties arising from the pandemic, the new resolution extends validity of Exploration Licenses, Extraction Permits, License Registries and Small-Scale/Alluvial Mining Licenses granted by the ANM for a maximum period of 467 days, as from July 1^st, 2021, applying the following rules:

• The extension will occur automatically, regardless of a requirement by the holders;

• Titles which would originally expire in the period between March 20, 2020 and June 30, 2021 will be extended until June 30, 2021, plus up to 467 days, according to the following: [EXTENSION DAYS = 467 - NUMBER OF DAYS BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL EXPIRATION DATE AND JUNE 30, 2021];

• Titles granted between March 20, 2020 and June 30, 2021 will be increased by up to 467 days, according to the following: [EXTENSION DAYS = NUMBER OF DAYS BETWEEN TITLE PUBLICATION AND JUNE 30, 2021];

• Titles expiring from June 30, 2021 will be increased by 467 days to their validity terms; and

• Title granted as of July 1^st, 2021 will not be subject to automatic extension.
  
  

The extension of the mineral titles' terms will not remove from the respective holders the right to reasonably request future extensions, if applicable. 

The holder which has no interest in having extended its titles, especially in the case of exploration licenses, shall waive the right, by means of an application submitted to the ANM electronically until June 30, 2021. 

The deadlines for payment of public revenues managed by the ANM remain unchanged, without suspension or extension. 

Our team shall continue to follow up on these developments and remain at disposal for any additional queries with respect to the ANM's activities.