The Annu­al Pro­duc­tion Plan for Min­ing Oper­a­tions is a doc­u­ment con­tain­ing infor­ma­tion on the direc­tion of min­ing process­es, cal­cu­lat­ed extrac­tion vol­umes, planned explo­ration activ­i­ties, reg­u­la­to­ry data for min­er­al loss cal­cu­la­tions, and occu­pa­tion­al safe­ty and sub­soil pro­tec­tion mea­sures.

The min­ing devel­op­ment scheme is pre­pared annu­al­ly either by the sub­soil user direct­ly or by a con­trac­tor pro­vid­ing geo­log­i­cal and mine sur­vey­ing sup­port to the enter­prise.

The annu­al pro­duc­tion pro­gram reg­u­lates deci­sions regard­ing:

• min­er­al extrac­tion;
• deposit strip­ping and access works;
• prepara­to­ry and recla­ma­tion activ­i­ties;
• geo­log­i­cal and mine sur­vey­ing sup­port;
• raw mate­r­i­al uti­liza­tion.

The fol­low­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion is required for prepa­ra­tion of the annu­al plan:

• a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use;
• a min­ing allot­ment act (if applic­a­ble);
• a pro­to­col of the State Com­mis­sion on Min­er­al Reserves;
• the pre­vi­ous year’s annu­al pro­duc­tion pro­gram;
• an approved Field Devel­op­ment and Recla­ma­tion Project;
• a geo­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic assess­ment report;
• a signed tech­ni­cal assign­ment.

The min­ing oper­a­tions plan con­sists of a tex­tu­al part and a set of geo­log­i­cal and mine sur­vey­ing draw­ings.

The tex­tu­al part describes the geo­log­i­cal struc­ture, spe­cif­ic min­ing con­di­tions, the quan­ti­ty of quar­ry equip­ment and trans­port, and recla­ma­tion mea­sures. Geo­log­i­cal and sur­vey­ing graph­ic doc­u­men­ta­tion includes topo­graph­ic plans, bench-by-bench plans, geo­log­i­cal cross-sec­tions, pit and dump pass­ports, etc.

The Annu­al Pro­duc­tion Pro­gram is pre­pared in accor­dance with:

• Arti­cles 19 and 24 of the Min­ing Law of Ukraine;
• Arti­cle 51 of the Sub­soil Code of Ukraine;
• Sec­tion 4 of the Uni­fied Rules for Sub­soil Pro­tec­tion dur­ing Devel­op­ment of Sol­id Min­er­al Deposits (NPAOP 00.0–1.01–85);
• Occu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty Rules for Open-Pit Min­ing (NPAOP 0.00–1.24–10).

After review of the Annu­al Pro­duc­tion Plan, the State Labour Ser­vice author­i­ty makes a deci­sion regard­ing approval or rejec­tion. The results of the review are for­mal­ized in a pro­to­col signed by the head of the region­al office.

In case of approval, graph­i­cal appen­dices are stamped “Approved.” Extrac­tion of min­er­als with­out approval of the annu­al pro­gram by the region­al author­i­ty is not per­mit­ted. Devi­a­tions from the approved plan are also pro­hib­it­ed.

If devi­a­tions in geo­log­i­cal or min­ing con­di­tions are iden­ti­fied, amend­ments must be intro­duced to the annu­al plan and resub­mit­ted for approval as soon as pos­si­ble.