Finally there is news about gold mining in our country. On July 31, 2017, the final version of the bill was published on the federal portal of draft regulatory legal acts, which allows individual entrepreneurs to mine gold in Russia.

The bill provides for amendments to the Federal Law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” and to the Law of the Russian Federation “On Subsoil”. The full and detailed text of the document can be found at the link.

And now - briefly about the content of the future legislative act. By the way, it has not yet been adopted, and the status indicates that the bill is under consideration by the Russian government.

Quote:

“Extraction of precious metals, extraction of precious stones can be carried out exclusively by legal entities, and in cases provided for by this Federal Law, also by individual entrepreneurs who have received, in the manner established by this Federal Law, the Law of the Russian Federation “On Subsoil” and other federal laws, a license to use of subsoil."

Where can gold be mined?

• Within the borders of the Magadan region.
• Only in the territory of alluvial deposits, where the state has taken into account the gold reserve of no more than 10 kg.
• The list of sites will be established and published on the Internet by the Magadan Department of the State Subsoil Fund.
• Each plot will be no more than 0.15 square meters. km.
• It will not be possible to dig deeper than 5 meters.
• An individual entrepreneur must apply for one plot and use only that plot.

How will it be possible to mine gold?

• personally, without involving other persons on a contractual basis,
• without the use of blasting operations,
• without the use of mining, drilling geological exploration equipment,
• without earthmoving machines, industrial tractors,
• without development and maintenance of quarries.

Another separate point that cannot but rejoice is that the development and approval of technical projects and other project documentation is not required!

Here, perhaps, are all the main points of the finalized bill. According to some reports, it may be adopted as early as this year.

In this regard, we remind you: the area of ​​the Magadan region is 462,464 square meters. km. If we compare, this is literally the entire Central Federal District (Central Federal District), only without the Tver, Yaroslavl and Kostroma regions. The whole of Germany can be located on the territory of the Magadan Territory and there will be room, for example, for the Czech Republic. That is, there is more than enough space for gold miners.

After the adoption of the bill, the most suitable means for individual entrepreneurs to mine gold will be a metal detector. A large selection of metal detectors for gold mining is available in MDRegion stores.

In fact, they give any Russian citizen the opportunity to become a miner and buy and sell gold absolutely legally and profitably.

The tone was set by Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev, who proposed lifting restrictions on gold mining for individuals. Today, only legal entities have the right to mine the despised metal, which is stipulated in the Law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones.” It is clear that serious reserves of indigenous gold are beyond the reach of lone miners. But they will not lay claim to Sukhoi Log. According to Yuri Trutnev, “the sphere of activity of individuals in gold mining can include mountain dumps, industrial waste and other types of non-industrial mining.”

It is clear that they will not make a difference in the volume of gold production. However, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, this will help solve another important problem - the problem of employment of residents of remote regions of the Far East and Siberia.

However, we note that two thirds of the 600 gold mining organizations are small companies and cooperatives that produce no more than one hundred kilograms per year. So, if the people work hard, they may well make a worthy contribution to the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.

The proposal of the Minister of Natural Resources was actively supported by the Minister of Finance. At the same time, Alexey Kudrin drew attention to the problem of illicit trafficking in precious metals. There is an opinion that allowing individuals to mine gold entails a high risk of gold theft. Most of all, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB insist on this. According to the Minister of Finance, the owners, on the contrary, will strive to strengthen control over the deposits. True, in order to allow citizens to engage in mining, it is not enough to amend the law on precious metals. A number of organizational issues remain to be resolved. For example, open collection points for gold mined by individuals. And also decide whether to maintain a system for registering each transaction or not.

Alexey Kudrin also spoke in favor of the privatization of gold processing (refining) enterprises. In his opinion, these enterprises today no longer need the care of the state. They work normally and are controlled, there are no violations on their part. Apparently, these enterprises will begin to be put up for auction in the near future.

It seems that the question of where to store money, other than bank deposits, will soon be resolved. The President believes that it is necessary to reduce the VAT rate on the purchase and sale of gold by individuals. So, it is assumed that the population should have an alternative to the dollar and euro by purchasing so-called gold bullion bars from authorized banks. In principle, citizens still have such an opportunity today. But, as they say, buying gold is not a problem, the problem begins later when the need arises to sell it and get money. So, with this operation, citizens are forced to pay an 18 percent tax. We are talking about value added tax.

It is clear that in this situation, gold bars were not particularly popular among Russians who wanted not only to save their hard-earned money, but also to make some profit from it. A reduction, or better yet a complete abolition of VAT for such transactions, could spur citizens’ interest in gold, which is sold both in bars and in coins of the Bank of Russia.

As for reducing the VAT rate for citizens when purchasing gold, there are no objections here, according to an informed official from the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, today the issue of reducing the VAT rate throughout the country is being considered. The proposal to simplify the tax regime for small enterprises in the gold mining industry can be considered controversial. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin believes that all enterprises should have an equal taxation regime for profits. True, it is possible to introduce tax breaks, the Minister of Finance added. However, the decision to expand the number of preferential regimes is not such a simple task. As the Ministry of Finance explained to the RG correspondent, when providing similar concessions in other industries, they were faced with the fact that large enterprises immediately acquired a bunch of small ones in order to get into the small business column and thus receive preferential tax treatment.

Opinion

Sergey Pravykh, director of a private jewelry factory:

I'm glad that the authorities have finally made up their minds. After all, I have been hearing talk about liberalizing the gold mining market for several years now. Today, some guy in Magadan with a “black cash” can directly buy gold from miners. And there are thousands of them around the country. Everyone mines several tens of grams of gold per day in the old-fashioned way. If you consider that a gram costs $15 on the London Stock Exchange, you can imagine what “gold and foreign exchange reserves” are in circulation on the “black market”. Of the 140 tons of gold that are mined annually, almost a third is stolen from the mines and sold to the same “black” buyers. The stolen metal is sent through illegal channels, including to Turkey and China for processing, in order to return back to Russia in the form of jewelry.

I think the situation will change now. The main thing is that the state clearly defines the procedure for licensing the extraction of gold by citizens, the possibility of selling gold sand either directly to factories, for processing, or to banks, or to jewelers. At the same time, obtaining licenses for gold mining should not be of a permissive nature, but of an application nature. And licenses should cost a penny, so that everyone who wants to can try their luck. This artisanal work is especially relevant today for residents of the Far East, the Urals, Magadan, and Yakutia - some will be able to earn their daily bread, and others will become fantastically rich. The most important thing is that the state will try to partially solve the problem of employment in remote regions.

Today in the country there are thousands of abandoned, but rich in gold, dumps, unprofitable deposits, where it is unprofitable to work in an industrial way, but for private owners - just right. There is no risk of a “gold rush” for Russians, but the main thing is that foreigners are not included in the distribution of licenses. But there is such a danger. As soon as Russia allows individuals to mine gold, rest assured that Chinese, Mongolian, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz citizens will be the first to run to queue up for Russian mines and find ways to develop them.

Precious metal went ahead

By the end of the year, gold should rise to $500 per ounce (31.1 grams). The last time such a price was recorded was in 1987. According to the forecasts of experts who took part in a Bloomberg survey, the main reason for its rise in price will be an increase in demand for the precious metal against the backdrop of a fall in major currencies.

16 out of 28 economists surveyed strongly recommended buying gold. Just last week it rose in price by $16.8 and reached $486.2 per ounce. Since the beginning of the year, its value has increased by 11 percent. Until this point, the main reason for price hikes was cited as a reduction in production volumes, as well as increased demand for jewelry and increased concerns about a possible acceleration in inflation.

Hello, dear subscribers and guests of our site. After a series of articles devoted to gold, it’s time to consider such an issue as gold mining in Russia by individuals.

How legal and profitable it is as a business for individuals and nationwide, what is necessary for this type of activity, what should be taken into account.

In July 2017, a law was published that allows gold mining in Russia not only for large companies, but also for individuals who have received the status of individual entrepreneurs.

This type of activity is subject to licensing and has a number of restrictions in terms of gold mining, but it seems to be a very promising area.

History of gold mining in the Russian Federation

This is not an innovation in the history of the Russian Federation - from 1992 to 1998, any interested adult citizen of Russia could legally become a prospector, but later the law was revoked, and mining was allowed only to enterprises after receiving the appropriate license.

Even earlier, in Soviet Russia, private gold mining was allowed from October 1921 until 1956. At that time, there were about 120 thousand people as free miners and members of artels, who accounted for up to 50% of the total gold mining volume.

Discussions about the legalization of private gold mining by individuals have been going on for a long time; a corresponding bill has existed since 2010, however, for a long time there was no progress in its adoption and entry into force.

Why was private mining allowed?

Many officials spoke in favor of introducing amendments to the Russian Law “On Subsoil” to legalize gold mining by individuals. Private mining does not promise any problems for the activities of large gold miners, but it will increase budget allocations. Moreover, the shadow turnover from illegal gold mining is huge - presumably about 10% of the entire production of the precious metal worth trillions of rubles.

In addition, with a significant number of deposits, not all of them are profitable in industrial quantities. It’s a different matter for a private owner who does not incur the costs of expensive equipment and related project documentation. For him, the expected income may be quite acceptable.

State income before and after the amendment

According to some forecasts, at the expense of individuals, an increase in gold mining is expected by 3000 kg. annually, but I do not undertake to make assumptions until a bill is presented on the procedure for organizing the purchase of mined metal and setting the price for it at collection points, because this could radically affect the situation.

But if we rely on data from past years, then bringing this activity out of the shadows will certainly provide Russia with an increase in budget revenues through licensing payments and tax deductions. The official volume of precious metal production will also increase.

World gold production and Russia’s role in it

The total volume of gold mined worldwide in 2017 was 3,246.6 tons. The undisputed mineral resource for the eleventh year in a row is China. Its production in 2017 amounted to 426.1 tons. Australia took second place, albeit with a significant margin - its volumes are 295 thousand kg. And Russia closes the top three – 270.7 tons.

Quantity of gold as a political tool

Having your own gold reserves is an economic instrument and does not in itself ensure political independence. Japan serves as a clear example - having the world's second largest gold and foreign exchange reserves, this country is an unconditional satellite of the United States of America, which is not even in the top ten in terms of reserve accumulations.

But there is an opposite example - Germany, which placed its own reserves in the United States and is now a hostage to the situation and an object of outright political blackmail, unable to return gold to its territory, or even conduct an audit of its property.

One conclusion suggests itself - it is not the tool that is important, but the hand of the master who uses it.

Punishment for illegal mining

Today, illegal gold mining in Russia leads to administrative liability for an individual, a fine of 5,000 rubles, and confiscation of the mined metal and tools.

If the value of the seized gold is greater than or equal to one million rubles, then the Criminal Code comes into force, providing for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of up to three years. Illegal gold mining by a group of persons can result in imprisonment for up to seven years with a fine of 1 to 3 million rubles.

Which organization should I contact?

The Department of Geology of Solid Minerals of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use (Rosnedra) is in charge of issuing the relevant licenses. To obtain a permit it is not necessary to go to Moscow. The relevant papers can be prepared at any of the organization’s regional offices.

You should also not expect to get a plot of land in a rich deposit; individual entrepreneurs will be allowed to develop:

• Dumps and residual reserves in host rocks;
• Waste from mining companies;
• Inventories subject to write-off and substandard;
• , not subject to industrial production.

In what cases is it not necessary to obtain a license?

You can do without obtaining a license in two cases:

• Acquisition of an enterprise with already completed paperwork for gold mining;
• Signing a contract agreement with a gold mining organization for the development of areas under its jurisdiction.

For what period is a license issued?

The document gives the right to develop a plot of 15 acres to a depth of no more than 5 meters and extract gold weighing up to 10 kg for five years. After this period expires, the license can be renewed.

Types of license

For JSCs and LLCs, two types of licenses are provided: a gold mining permit for a period of 20 years and deposit development, which includes geological exploration with a validity period of 25 years.

Does the type of permit depend on the gold mining method?

A permit for the extraction of precious metals as an individual entrepreneur gives the right only to artisanal mining of metal.

In order to develop a mine using the mine method, or use modern methods of metal extraction, it will be necessary to register an enterprise and attend to obtaining a license for a legal entity. But, whatever the method of gold mining, the license will be the same.

How much money do you need for a gold mining business?

Expenses for geological exploration, organization of production and purchase of equipment can range from 10 to 100 million rubles if we are talking about a placer mine. Organizing the work of a mining company to extract gold using the shaft method will cost no less than 0.5 billion.

How to get a license

Even if you have the necessary funds, obtaining a license for such activities is not so easy. Rosnedra announces an auction for the development of strictly defined deposits.

Individuals can also contact Rosnedra and receive one of the sites for development, a full list of which is publicly available. At the moment, there are already about a hundred such sites.

Required documents for individuals and individual entrepreneurs

To obtain a license, you must obtain the status of an individual entrepreneur; for this you will need:

• Application for registration in the prescribed form;
• Copy of the passport;
• Receipt for payment of state duty.

Procedure for obtaining permission

After registering an individual entrepreneur, an individual can submit an application for the corresponding plot. The decision to grant a license is made within 30 days.

Upon receipt of a license, an individual entrepreneur is required to register with the tax office as a payer of mineral extraction tax.

Approximate cost of LDZ

The cost of a license for a non-resident is from 5 billion rubles. The price for domestic companies is lower, but is also expressed in significant numbers, depending on the results of the auction.

Law firms offer intermediary services for obtaining licenses for the extraction of valuable metals, estimating their assistance at 100-200 thousand rubles.

Pitfalls of legislation

It is impossible to choose a plot of land somewhere in the Sverdlovsk region or Karelia. The law applies exclusively to the territory of the Magadan region. Mining by individuals in Russia is allowed only by the surface method without the use of any equipment other than hand tools. The use of hired workers is also prohibited.

How to save money

The main way to avoid additional expenses is to do the paperwork yourself, without resorting to the services of intermediaries. Longer and more troublesome, but cheaper.

For legal entities, a way to reduce costs is to participate in a competition. The state, acting as a customer, puts forward a number of demands, but the absence of tenders allows reducing the costs of organizing gold mining.

Main gold mines and deposits in Russia

If the practice of private gold mining gives a positive result, the question will arise about its distribution throughout the country, fortunately, there are plenty of promising places. Most of the richest mines in Russia have been developed for decades, and some deposits have a history of one and a half centuries, but the gold reserves in them show no signs of drying up.

The most famous of them:

1. Solovyovsky mine, Amur region;
2. Udeysky mine, Krasnoyarsk region;
3. Nevyanovsky mine, Ural ridge;
4. Gradsky mine, Chelyabinsk region;
5. Dambuki field, Amur region;
6. Conder, Khabarovsk Territory;
7. Altai mine.

Developed fields

There are thousands of places in the Russian Federation where you can find gold. In 15 regions, mining is carried out on an industrial scale. Another 10 regions are characterized by variable gold production volumes. Most of the deposits being developed are secondary (alluvial). In terms of the number of large alluvial gold mines, Russia ranks first in the world.

Stockwork deposits

Such deposits contain excess sulfides and quartz. Gold inclusions look like thin veins, and the gold-bearing layer itself occupies a large area and stretches for tens of kilometers in length. These mines, with a relatively low content of noble metal, are quite suitable for open-pit mining.

How is gold extracted from ore?

Before, the ore must first be crushed. But even after this, the washing method will not provide maximum metal recovery. The most effective will be the use of other methods.

Extraction methods

In addition to panning, gold is also mined using amalgamation - by mixing ore with mercury, which tends to interact with gold and separate it from the rock. After which the resulting amalgam (an alloy of gold and mercury) is collected and gold is separated from the alloy.

Another method is called heap leaching - exposing gold-bearing rock to an aqueous solution of cyanide, after which the precious metal dissolved in the liquid is precipitated using appropriate reagents.

Prospects for precious metals mining

Practice shows that gold mining by private individuals contributes to the development of the industry as a whole. And gold mining, due to its high value and demand on the international market, is strategically important for ensuring the stability of the country’s economy.

Experience of non-industrial gold mining in other countries

Australia is a positive example - a gold mining license here can be issued in a matter of minutes and will cost only $30. The service is extremely popular, and despite the low probability of finding gold, it attracts a lot of tourists to the country.

Finally, I suggest you watch the video

Gold mining in Russia by individuals, in other words, by ordinary people-miners, was either encouraged by the state or prohibited. History has shown that by giving gold miners the opportunity to ordinary people to mine gold, the state only benefited from this. Indeed, during the reign of Peter I, most of the large deposits in Russia were discovered by ordinary people.

In many countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, illegal gold miners wash sand and climb into mines, risking their lives. How the state now regulates the activities of individuals in this area in Russia, what needs to be done now in order for individuals to be able to extract this precious metal legally, we will consider in more detail in this article.

Gold is a natural resource that is one of the components of the country's state budget. This is precisely the reason that with the change of power in the history of the state, the rules for its extraction also change. The government either allows ordinary people to mine gold or prohibits them from doing so. The role of ordinary miners in the search for gold cannot be underestimated.

In Russia, gold mining has been officially carried out since the eighteenth century. Although it was mined in small quantities before. During the Civil War and immediately after it, the volume of gold mined only decreased. So, in the 20s of the last century, the amount of gold mined was 2.5 tons, which is very small compared to previous years. This is due to the fact that in those lands where gold mining sites were most localized (Ural, Siberia), the Bolsheviks did not immediately establish power.

Gold mining enterprises found themselves either in the hands of one ruling force or another. Those who left tried to destroy everything after them, blowing up mines and destroying equipment. From 1932 to 1941, the state began to encourage single miners. According to the law, anyone who had reached the age of 18 and had no previous criminal record could mine gold. Miners were even given housing and trips to sanatoriums. Thanks to these measures, the amount of gold mined has increased significantly compared to the Civil War era.

However, in 1954, government authorities officially banned private individuals from mining gold. This gave rise to illegal mining of precious metals. Thus, during the collapse of the USSR, about 20 tons of gold were mined illegally per year. This represented 10% of the amount of legally mined gold. The reason for this is that from 1992 to 1998 there was no law regulating gold mining. Any people could do this without any official permission.

However, in 1998, a number of laws were passed that placed strict restrictions on gold mining and gold mining. The federal law “On Precious Metals and Precious Stones” No. 41-FZ was adopted, and subsequently the Law “On Subsoil” No. 2395-1, which provided for restrictions on gold mining for individuals. According to this legislation, gold mining could only be carried out by legal entities that have a special permit or license for this type of activity. Rosnedra and its branches in the regions, as follows from the above laws, issue licenses.

It was possible to obtain permission to mine gold in gold mines by participating in auctions and competitions organized by Rosnedra. If a legal entity takes first place in the bidding, then, accordingly, it receives a license for gold mining.

Changes in the law

Since 2016, the state has made concessions for private gold miners. The law “On Subsoil” was amended, according to which, since 2017, the state allows private individuals to mine gold. But, there are clearly defined rules on how and where you can mine gold. The rules are:

• It is allowed to mine the precious metal only by the surface method;
• Heavy equipment such as bulldozers and tractors cannot be used. Excavations can only be carried out using hand tools;
• Only those persons specified in the contract can carry out excavations. It is prohibited to involve third parties;
• Blasting, which is used to facilitate gold mining, is also prohibited;
• Excavations should not exceed 5 meters in depth.

According to this legislation, if a person is engaged in gold mining illegally without appropriate permission, then he is subject to a fine in the form of a fine, as well as confiscation of the tools used to carry out the illegal activity. If gold is found on the violator, the price of which exceeds one million rubles, he will be prosecuted.

The state is forced to create such strict measures to combat illegal gold mining, since in this field there is a high risk of corruption and evasion of the delivery of the mined precious metal to the state. Also, you cannot excavate in a mine that is the property of one or another gold mining company. A private owner can mine gold on the territory of former production sites or on territories where the presence of gold is unlikely.

Where is gold mined in Russia?

Russia ranks fourth in gold production in the world. The territory where deposits of this precious metal exist is quite extensive. They are mainly localized in the Urals and Siberia. Recently, huge gold mining cooperatives have been created in this territory, where the infrastructure for gold mining has been established. Also, large deposits of gold are located in Altai and the Far East, the Moscow region, and the Leningrad region.

How to get a gold mining license

Any land is the property of the state, in particular that which contains gold deposits. To obtain official permission to mine gold in gold deposits, it is necessary to go through a number of legal procedures. They are different for legal entities and individuals and are regulated by the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use (Rosnedra). For the first, as noted earlier, it is necessary to undergo a competitive selection, or you can buy or rent an organization that already has a gold mining license.

For an individual, the rules for obtaining a license are as follows:

1. A person needs to register as an individual entrepreneur (IP);
2. Contact the management of the state subsoil fund and submit an application;
3. Within a month, a specially created commission, having examined the documents, makes a decision on issuing or refusing to issue the right to gold mining to a private individual.

No business plan or gold mining project is required from a private individual. A gold mining license for private individuals is issued for a period of five years, while for a legal entity, when combining gold mining with geological exploration, it is issued for 25 years. In addition, private traders are prohibited from searching for gold in deposits that contain gold reserves on an industrial scale.

When obtaining a license, you must pay a state fee, the cost of which is:

• If a person is applying for a permit for the first time – 7,500 rubles;
• If the license is renewed or reissued – 750 rubles.

The gold miner is obliged to hand over all mined gold to the state. How the mined gold is delivered and at what price is also provided for by law.

Advantages of private gold mining

Having made changes in legislation, thereby allowing ordinary people to engage in gold excavation, the state realized that the role of artisanal gold mining is large. History knows of miners who could mine several kilograms of gold in a month using artisanal methods.

The number of miners does not decrease from year to year, but on the contrary, their number is increasing. The reason for this is that the location conditions of some gold deposits do not allow mining of the precious metal on an industrial scale. It is not profitable for a legal entity to mine gold in such places due to the high cost of the planned excavations.

An ordinary prospector can pan for gold using simple and inexpensive equipment. Even a small amount of this precious metal found brings significant income to the private owner.

The benefits of changes in legislation are noticeable both to the ordinary gold miner and to the state:

1. It is planned to receive additional gold to the state budget in the amount of up to 300 kg;
2. Thanks to changes in the law, the state will support the development of small and medium-sized businesses in remote areas. Thus, during the ban on gold mining for ordinary people, the residents of Chukotka were left without a means of subsistence, left without a source of income;
3. Additional jobs will also be created and population growth is possible in regions with a demographic crisis.

But the state will have to work hard and strictly control the activities of individuals before complete trust arises between it and free miners and their work will be appreciated.