The government supported the legalization of gold mining by individuals
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The Government Commission for Legislative Activities approved the draft law “On Mining Activities”. The document proposes to legalize “free bringing” – the extraction of gold by individuals. Source Vedomosti said that the bill would be submitted to the State Duma in the near future. The authorities expect that legalization will bring to the regional budgets from 15.1 billion to 29.99 billion rubles. within three years and will help create more than 10,000 new jobs.
The bill was developed by the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East on behalf of President Vladimir Putin. The agency has not yet responded to the request. The representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources did not comment on the approval of the document by the government commission to Vedomosti, but recalled that the ministry supported it back in 2022.
The government commission also approved amendments to the Tax Code on the payment of VAT by gold buyers, not sellers. Prospectors are also exempt from paying personal income tax if they mined less than 1 kg of gold during the reporting tax period.
For the first three years after the adoption of the bill, the mechanism will operate in a pilot mode in the Far East and in the land areas of the Arctic. After that, the document will be extended to all Russian regions.
The government wants to create an online system where individual entrepreneurs can receive artisanal plots for free use. It is planned to allocate land plots with an area of no more than 10 hectares for three years with the possibility of extension for another three years. The bill contains several restrictions. A miner can work only in one area, remove a layer of earth up to 5 m and involve no more than ten employees. For the entire period of activity, no more than 30 kg of gold can be mined on the site. Blasting operations, the use of polluting and environmentally hazardous substances, the use of chemical methods of gold mining, the use of equipment with a power of more than 5 kW are prohibited.
Chairman of the Union of Miners of Russia Viktor Tarakanovsky believes that the law will not attract new participants to the industry due to “unrealistic conditions” of work. In his opinion, miners working in the gray sector “are unlikely to agree to these conditions, since this will significantly reduce their income.”
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