Mining activities in Hungary may only be carried out pursuant to provisions of Act XLVIII of 1993 (Bt.), Government decree 203/1998 on its implementation (Vhr.) and other related legislation.
Point 4 of Section 49 of Bt. : Mining activities shall be subject to permitting.
Paragraph (2) of Section 23 of Bt. : The Mining Authority shall authorize the mine development and extraction of mineral raw materials, underground gas storage, as well as the utilization of the waste heap by approving the technical operation plan [Section 27 of Bt.]. In case extraction of mineral resources from waste heaps, the regulations of the extraction with surface mining shall be applied.
Any mining operation shall be carried out under an approved technical operation plan.
Paragraph (1) of Section 13 of Vhr. : The operation plan shall define the intended mining operations in the mining plant. The plan shall comprise of a text part and a plan map.
Annexes 3 and 4 to the Government decree 161/2017 on the Mining and Geological Survey of Hungary shall contain the concerned expert authorities participating in procedures for permitting mining as well as authorities involved in special issues considered by the Government Office.
Paragraph (2) of Section 27 of Bt. : The technical operation plan shall be drawn up in light of the technical safety, health, mineral reserve management, water management and environmental natural and land remediation requirements in such a way that it should ensure the protection of life, health, surface and underground installations, in addition to the agricultural and forestry lands, the possible prevention or reduction of mine damages, natural and environmental damages, as well as – suitable to those determined in the instruments for land use management - the completion of the land remediation.
Paragraph (1) of Section 13 of Vhr.: The application for approval of the technical operation plan shall be submitted to the Mining Authority. The technical operation plan shall specify the planned mining operations of a mine.
The mining entrepreneur shall attach to the application for the approval of the technical operation plan for verifying the utilization entitlement related to the foreign real property concerned in mining operations determined in the technical operation plan, or by the planned installation:
a) agreement for the utilization of the real property for mining activities made with the owner of the real property or the trustee, countersigned either by a lawyer or a counsel,
b) the approving declaration by the owner of the real property or the trustee related to the utilization of the real property for mining activities countersigned either by a lawyer or a counsel,
c) the final authority resolution or the judgement establishing the entitlement.
An administrative fee shall be paid to the Mining Authority for the proceeding pursuant to Ministerial decree 78/2015 on administrative service fees and other administrative charges to be paid to the Mining Authority, and detailed rules of payment of the supervision fee.
Paragraph (3) of Section 13 of Vhr. : The text part of the technical operation plan related to the exploration, mine development, extraction of the mine, and the utilization of the waste heap as well as the land remediation to be carried out simultaneously therewith or upon the completion thereof shall contain:
a) the account relating to the performance of the previous operation plan (report on the completion of the exploration, mine development, extraction and land remediation activities carried out, as well as on the conditions of the technical safety and health and safety in the mining plant),
b) mining activities scheduled for the plan period, the technologic and safety conditions, as well as the identification of the mining plant delimited in the plan map,
c) the names of the mining areas (sites) required for the performance of the tasks and a survey of the conditions of ownership (use) of the surface areas intended for utilization, as well as of the presumable geologic conditions and mining hazards,
d) exploration tasks necessary for the maintenance of extraction and for the inclusion of new areas (sites), as well as the list of underground and surface installations and major technical properties thereof,
e) the survey of the planned method, schedule (e.g. seasonal interruption) and mining technology, as well as the order of technical inspections,
f) the method and tools for the assessment of the quantity and quality of the extracted mineral raw materials,
g) the technical measures to be taken to prevent and mitigate the likely mining hazards and specification of the implementation of the scheduled land remediation,
h) the features of the mineral resource management
ha) the exploration activities (drilling, tunnel driving) intended to obtain more information on the quantitative and qualitative parameters of mineral resources,
hb) the quantity of mineral raw materials intended to be left behind from the mineral resources recorded in the area (site) involved in the extraction (loss in mineral resources), and the justification thereof, as well as the measures to be taken in order to optimize the loss in mineral resources,
hc) the loss affecting the quantity of the extracted mineral raw materials (loss in product), and the justification thereof,
i) representation of the impact of the exploitation on the environment, the measures required to prevent and diminish the hazardous environmental impacts, the monitoring methods, the order of the construction and operation of installations and measurement points for the purpose thereof ;
j) in case of extraction by underground coal gasification
ja) delineation of coal deposit planned to be exploited by incineration,
jb) description of technical measures for stoppability of incineration,
jc) description of technical measures preventing the incineration to move outside the mining plot,
jd) determination of quantity of the utilized coal;
k) in case of mine development and extraction of hydrocarbons and the storage of natural gas;
ka) the quantity of oil, gas, condensate and water planned to be extracted as per site, as well as the quantity of hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide to be injected,
kb) the representation of the planned method, schedule (e.g. seasonal suspension), mining technologies and a reference to the plans of exploitation,
kc) the number and planned location of wells to be deepened for the maintenance of extraction and for the inclusion of new areas (sites), the collection system of the field, the list of the new surface installations with their essential technical properties,
kd) the test productions planned in the course of the particular period,
ke) outline of fracturing planned in the geologic media delineated by mining plot for development and extraction of hydrocarbons, and of other injections stimulating extraction, description of characteristics of the liquid to be used (content, quantity);
l) the schedule and method of any possible archaeologic excavations, the measures to be taken to preserve the untouched parts of the archaeologic site subsequent to the excavation.
Paragraph (1) of Section 14 of Vhr. : The measures included in the technical operation plan shall be justified, and the schedule of the temporal and areal implementation shall be provided. Should the plan of the real estate utilization included in the technical operation plan submitted for approval deviate from the time schedule set forth in item c) of paragraph (2) of Section 11/A. , the owners of the real estate concerned shall be notified of such deviation in the notification about the institution of proceedings.
Paragraph (5) of Section 29 of Vhr. : The technical plan shall be countersigned by the responsible technical manager to the mining plant.
Paragraph (7) of Section 13 of Vhr. : The content requirements of the map plan shall be specified by the minister in mine safety regulations. (also see Sections 17, 23 and 27 of Ministerial decree 10/2010 on Mining Safety Regulations referring to the scale and content of mine maps).
Paragraph (3) of Section 14 of Vhr. : The technical operation plan for extraction may be approved for a period of 5 (five) years at most in case of underground mining, crude oil and natural gas extraction while in case of opencast mining for a period of no longer than 15 (fifteen) years, if the effect of the related environmental protection permit, integrated permit of environmental use or environmental operation permit is not shorter than the periods of time mentioned above. The technical operation plan shall be reviewed by the entrepreneur annually, and – in case of changed circumstances – shall be obliged to apply for the modification of the technical operation plan. If the entrepreneur has not utilized the area for extraction in the plan period as determined in the approved plan, the period for fulfilment of the approving resolution may be extended no more than once, by the half of the period originally permitted.
Paragraph (4) of Section 14 of Vhr. : The technical operation plan, and the application for the modification thereof shall be submitted for approval to the Mining Authority prior to the commencement of the intended activity.
Section 15 of Vhr. : The approved technical operation plan may be modified exclusively with the approval of the Mining Authority.
Paragraph (1) of Section 36. of Bt. : The mining entrepreneur or the person entitled to geologic exploration shall gradually remediate the surface area whose usefulness has ceased to exist or reduced due to mining or geologic exploration activities, and to bring the area to a condition suitable for recycling or to construct it to be in harmony with the natural environment (hereinafter referred to as: land remediation).
Paragraph (2) of Section 36 of Bt. : The Mining Authority shall make a decision on the necessary land remediation tasks in the approval proceeding to the technical operation plan, as well as to the out-of-use deep drilling for mining purposes pursuant to paragraph (4).
Paragraph (1) of Section 22 of Vhr. : The land remediation shall be planned in the technical operation plan [paragraph (1) of Section 13.] in accordance with the tasks included in the preparatory land remediation plan and with the prescriptions of the resolution issued concerning the establishment of the mining plot. Should the conception be included in the preparatory land remediation plan [paragraphs (6) to (9) of Section 11/A of Vhr.] may not be, fully or partially, implemented due to any change in the circumstances, the mining entrepreneur shall be obliged to apply for the modification of the preparatory land remediation plan, which may take place in the framework of the approval of the operation plan.
Paragraph (4) of Section 22 of Vhr. : The mining entrepreneur shall notify the Mining Authority within 30 (thirty) days of the completion of the extraction, the implementation of the technical operation plan relating to the mine closure and the completion of land remediation . The Mining Authority shall make a decision on the completion of land remediation and of the mining activity. After this resolution has become non-appealable, the Mining Authority shall make a decision on the cancellation of the mining plot; in case of a mining plot entered in the real estate register, it shall contact, with the non-appealable decision, the competent land office in order that the mining plot will be deleted from the Real Estate Register.
