A spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use (spe­cial per­mit) is an autho­riza­tion doc­u­ment issued by the cen­tral exec­u­tive author­i­ty empow­ered by the State (the State Ser­vice of Geol­o­gy and Sub­soil of Ukraine – Derzh­geon­adra), which grants a busi­ness enti­ty the right to car­ry out geo­log­i­cal explo­ration, pilot indus­tri­al devel­op­ment, and/or extrac­tion of min­er­al resources.

Until 2023, the main reg­u­la­to­ry legal act gov­ern­ing the issuance of spe­cial per­mits for sub­soil use was Res­o­lu­tion of the Cab­i­net of Min­is­ters No. 615. How­ev­er, on Decem­ber 1, 2022, the Verk­hov­na Rada adopt­ed the Law “On Amend­ments to Cer­tain Leg­isla­tive Acts of Ukraine on Improv­ing Leg­is­la­tion in the Field of Sub­soil Use”, which entered into force on March 28, 2023. This Law sig­nif­i­cant­ly changed the prin­ci­ples of sub­soil use and cer­tain rules for obtain­ing spe­cial per­mits for sub­soil use and sub­soil uti­liza­tion in gen­er­al, which are now large­ly reg­u­lat­ed by the Sub­soil Code and oth­er reg­u­la­to­ry legal acts.

Thus, a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use may be grant­ed with­out an auc­tion or based on the results of an auc­tion in the form of elec­tron­ic bid­ding, which is announced by Derzh­geon­adra on the basis of appli­ca­tions sub­mit­ted to Derzh­geon­adra and con­duct­ed through the “Prozorro.Sale” sys­tem. The list of spe­cial per­mits for sub­soil use con­tains infor­ma­tion on all per­mits issued with­in Ukraine and is avail­able on the State Geo­log­i­cal Por­tal.

Types of Special Permits

Accord­ing to updates in leg­is­la­tion, sub­soil use per­mits may be grant­ed for:

• Extrac­tion of min­er­al resources;
• Con­struc­tion of under­ground facil­i­ties not relat­ed to the extrac­tion of min­er­al resources;
• Estab­lish­ment of sci­en­tif­ic test­ing grounds, geo­log­i­cal reserves, nature sanc­tu­ar­ies, nat­ur­al mon­u­ments, med­ical and health facil­i­ties.

A spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use is grant­ed for a peri­od deter­mined by the appli­cant, but not less than 3 years and not more than 20 years for a com­pre­hen­sive per­mit that includes the right to con­duct geo­log­i­cal explo­ration, includ­ing pilot indus­tri­al devel­op­ment, and sub­se­quent extrac­tion, as well as for oth­er types of sub­soil use except per­mits issued for the cre­ation of geo­log­i­cal objects. Such a spe­cial per­mit may be grant­ed for a peri­od of up to 50 years. It should be not­ed that the valid­i­ty peri­od of a spe­cial per­mit starts from the date of entry in the State Reg­is­ter of Sub­soil Use Per­mits (except for per­mits spec­i­fy­ing lat­er dates).

Submitting an Application for a Special Permit

Sub­mis­sion of an appli­ca­tion for obtain­ing a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use is pos­si­ble only togeth­er with a com­plete set of rel­e­vant geo­log­i­cal and legal doc­u­ments using the “elec­tron­ic cab­i­net of the sub­soil user”. Through the “elec­tron­ic cab­i­net of the sub­soil user” por­tal, the appli­cant may also sub­mit appli­ca­tions for exten­sion of the valid­i­ty peri­od of a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use, amend­ments to the spe­cial per­mit, as well as amend­ments to the agree­ment on sub­soil use con­di­tions. For this pur­pose, an appli­ca­tion must be sub­mit­ted on the State Geo­log­i­cal Por­tal.

In order for Derzh­geon­adra to ini­ti­ate elec­tron­ic auc­tions for the sale of a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use, the appli­cant sub­mits an appli­ca­tion to Derzh­geon­adra, a draft work pro­gram, an overview map of the research area, a sit­u­a­tion­al plan of the site, and geo­graph­ic coor­di­nates of cor­ner points in the WGS-84 coor­di­nate sys­tem.

In order for Derzh­geon­adra to ini­ti­ate elec­tron­ic auc­tions for the sale of a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use, the appli­cant, who may be either a legal enti­ty or an indi­vid­ual entre­pre­neur, sub­mits an appli­ca­tion to Derzh­geon­adra, a draft work pro­gram, an overview map of the research area where the spe­cial per­mit is planned to be obtained, a sit­u­a­tion­al plan of the site, and geo­graph­ic coor­di­nates of cor­ner points in the WGS-84 coor­di­nate sys­tem, sub­mit­ted in the form of an appro­pri­ate cat­a­logue.

After review­ing the appli­ca­tion for obtain­ing a spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use, Derzh­geon­adra sends the doc­u­ment pack­age for approval to the Min­istry of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources of Ukraine. The Min­istry pro­vides approval with­in 15 work­ing days from the date of receipt of the rel­e­vant appli­ca­tion sub­mit­ted by Derzh­geon­adra.

In case of refusal by the Min­istry of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion, the appli­cant ini­ti­at­ing the auc­tion may sub­mit a repeat­ed appli­ca­tion after elim­i­nat­ing the defi­cien­cies spec­i­fied in the refusal. In the absence of a response with­in 15 days, approval is deemed grant­ed under the prin­ci­ple of tac­it con­sent. After that, the spe­cial per­mit for sub­soil use is offered for elec­tron­ic auc­tion on the “Prozorro.Sale” sys­tem, where appli­cants com­pete by offer­ing the high­est price for the lot.

Cases of Granting a Special Permit Without an Auction

• For a com­pre­hen­sive per­mit for local min­er­al resources with an area of up to 25 hectares;
• For extrac­tion of ground­wa­ter for all needs except bot­tling for the sale of drink­ing water;
• For extrac­tion of fresh ground­wa­ter for drink­ing water sup­ply.