The Mining State Inspectorate Summed Up the 2014

On December 12, the head of the Mining State Inspectorate of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Samvel Mkrtchyan introduced the works implemented by the Inspectorate during the 2014 at the press conference.

According to him, during the last year the checks were carried out in about 192 mining companies, the 98 of which were in accordance with approved work program, and the 20 of them in accordance with the written information received from the government agencies, the 4 of them by the Prime Minister's recommendation, the 38 checks according to legal entities (an individual entrepreneur) applications, the 32 of them were studies, and 29 checks are still being in process.

In the result of inspections there were been compiled 102 acts, regarding to the exceeding of the quota defined by the mining contract for the mineral the extraction purpose. They were been submitted to the appropriate territorial tax inspectorates of the RA Ministry of Finance to set an affair going by law.

 There have also been compiled 19 references, regarding to the assessment of the materials regarding the primary geological prospecting and materials contained in geotechnical statements, and they were been submitted to mineral resources agency.

 The regulations were been drawn towards the 4 mining companies, which geological exploration works were been implemented inappropriately to the works projects and work programs. The regulations also were been presented to the mineral resources agency.

  The notice-recommendations (warning of termination of the mineral rights),   were been sent to 125 mining companies, in order to eliminate the identified shortcomings within the time prescribed, the mining industry, the 15 of which had not eliminated shortcomings specified in a notice-recommendations within the time prescribed, resulting in there was filed a petition by the inspection in the manner prescribed by law to start the process for termination of mining right.

According to Samvel Mkrtchyan, as a result of inspections there have been drawn also acts and protocols concerning violations found, and have been made decisions in regard towards over the 66 mining companies with an administrative penalty, thus, during the reporting period 8,200,000 Armenian Drams have been debited to the state budget.

As a result of inspections, there was also been found out, that a part of the mining companies did not retain some of the contractual commitments with the authorized body, in particular, there were not been conducted the registers of daily movement,  the survey measurement works, the regime observations necessary for the mining process of mineral water mines, as well the mining activities were been conducted inadequate with the provided and approved projects, in some cases they were been conducted out of provided territories.

In some cases the documents verifying the legality of the lands provided with the mining right were been missing, that is, the operation is carried out without the land use right.

As a result of tours carried out by the State Inspectorate during 2014, 36 cases of illegal mining were found, which were reported to the competent authorities in the manner prescribed and there was obtained the relevant information, that criminal cases were initiated in the connection with the facts and carried out the investigation.

As a result of the investigations carried out by the State Inspectorate among 60 mining companies, which did not re-registered the mining rights, there were been  discovered 12 cases of illegal mining in accordance with the Article 80 of the RA Mining Code, and about those has also been reported to the competent authorities.

-In cases of the above-mentioned illegal mining, as well as without the land use rights mining should be noted, that in accordance with the RA Law on Local Self-Government and the RA Land Code, on the target and the functional significance implementation of the land within the administrative boundaries of the community, supervises the head of community, also prevents and eliminates the illegal land use and submit appropriate reports to the competent authorities, said Samvel Mkrtchyan.

In order to increase the effectiveness of inspections conducted by the State Inspectorate and  to settle the problems existing in the mining sphere, by the  Prime Minister's Decision the State Inspectorate staff increased by 10 persons, the inspectorate provided by transport and modern technical equipments.

The recommendations for making amendments and supplementations in the number of legal acts regarding mining has been developed by the Inspectorate and presented to the inspection reforms group, which would boost the transparency of the functions performed by the Inspectorate.

In accordance with the working plan it is planned to carry out inspections among the 140 mining companies, and under the Prime Minister's instruction among the 42   mining companies, during the 2015, by the Mining State Inspectorate.