Exploration licence
Whoever wishes to explore for freely mineable resources (exploration = the search for mineable resources or establishment of the extent of mineable resources) requires an exploration licence according to § 7 of the Mining Law. Exploration licences are granted by the responsible authorities. For the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, the German continental shelf of the North Sea and a part of the German continental shelf of the Baltic Sea this is the State Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG). The exploration licence guarantees the exclusive right to explore mineable resources within a certain site (licence area). The licence area has limited aboveground sites but extends to an "eternal depth" and theoretically to the centre of the earth.
The granting of an exploration licence does not entitle the holder to actual exploration activities but solely provides a legal right with which he on the grounds of proving suitability can solely carry out exploration in the allocated licence area. Actual exploration activities may only be carried out on the grounds of authorized operation plans (§ 51 ff of the Mining Law).
The requirements for the application for exploration licences are to be taken from Appendix 1 of the decreed directives .
Legally binding information from the mining authorizations book and the mining authorizations map (§ 75 of the Mining Law) can be obtained from the section 2.7 – faculty mine surveying.
An overview on the mining licences granted (spatial extent, holder, allocation time periods etc.) can be found on our NIBIS® MAPSERVER.
Exploration licence