Use, protection of subsoil to be optimized in Moldova

Chisinau, 5 June /MOLDPRES/ - The cabinet today approved the Code of subsoil in a new version. The document provides for the rational use of the subsoil for meeting the needs of mineral raw material, enhancing the security of works and diminishing the negative effects on the environment, the government’s communication department has reported.    

The new Code of subsoil specifies the requirements as to the exploitation of the deposits of useful mineral substances and the primary processing of raw material, among which: enforcement of rational, ecologically inoffensive technologies; carrying out of the works in safe conditions for people, constructions and the environment; observance of the technological schemes of processing, etc.  

The Code also establishes the financial guarantee for the restoration of the environment, which will be necessary as early as at the stage of designing the works, in order to reduce to the minimum the negative effects of the mining exploitations. The financial guarantee will be returned to the economic agent to the extent to which the latter carried out the works on rehabilitation of the areas on which interventions were made.    

The document also sees the conditions for the use of the subsoil also on other purposes than the extraction of mineral substances, such as the use of the mine voids, as well as the voids of construction on the areas with deposits and with other resources of the subsoil.   

The procedure of getting the permissive acts for activities of subsoil’s exploration will be simplified. The authorizations will be provided in short terms, with the observance of the principles of transparency and efficient use of the mineral resources and the taxes on participation in the tender for economic agents will be excluded.     
The competent authority in the field of use and protection of the subsoil is the Agency for Geology and Mineral Resources, subordinated to the Environment Ministry.