In most spe­cial per­mits for sub­soil use for the pur­pose of geo­log­i­cal study, includ­ing pilot indus­tri­al devel­op­ment of min­er­al resources with sub­se­quent extrac­tion of min­er­als (indus­tri­al devel­op­ment of deposits), one of the claus­es of the spe­cial con­di­tions usu­al­ly states: “With­in one month after obtain­ing the spe­cial per­mit, com­plete Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure with the State Ser­vice of Geol­o­gy and Sub­soil of Ukraine.”

So, what is the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure?

Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure is the manda­to­ry state reg­is­tra­tion of works and stud­ies relat­ed to geo­log­i­cal explo­ration of sub­soil (per­formed using Form 3‑GR), which is sub­ject to offi­cial account­ing in order to sum­ma­rize and ensure effi­cient use of explo­ration results and to pre­vent dupli­ca­tion of such works.

As part of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure, infor­ma­tion is sub­mit­ted in a stan­dard­ized tab­u­lar form (Form 3‑GR), in which the sub­soil user pro­vides the fol­low­ing data:

• name of the min­er­al resource and type of work;
• name of the work object;
• admin­is­tra­tive loca­tion and geo­graph­ic coor­di­nates with indi­ca­tion of the area;
• time­frames for exe­cu­tion of works and dead­lines for sub­mis­sion of report­ing mate­ri­als for per­ma­nent stor­age.

Geo­graph­ic coor­di­nates sub­mit­ted with­in the frame­work of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure are pro­vid­ed in the form of a cat­a­logue exclu­sive­ly in the WGS-84 coor­di­nate sys­tem.

The WGS-84 coor­di­nate sys­tem is wide­ly used in geo­desy, car­tog­ra­phy, and nav­i­ga­tion, ensur­ing accu­ra­cy and con­sis­ten­cy when work­ing with geospa­tial data. If a spe­cial per­mit spec­i­fies coor­di­nates in anoth­er coor­di­nate sys­tem, spe­cial­ists of the Insti­tute of Geol­o­gy pro­vide con­ver­sion into WGS-84 in accor­dance with reg­u­la­to­ry require­ments.

Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure con­firms the sub­soil user’s right to con­duct the declared works and serves as an offi­cial record of planned geo­log­i­cal activ­i­ties.

Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure cov­ers all types of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration works, includ­ing geo­log­i­cal prospect­ing, geo­phys­i­cal, hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal, and oth­er stud­ies, as well as design-explo­ration and design works.

Reg­is­tra­tion may also include infor­ma­tion on dis­cov­ered min­er­al deposits, their reserves and qual­i­ty, as well as data on the poten­tial use of sub­soil resources in oth­er sec­tors of the econ­o­my, such as geot­her­mal ener­gy or water resources.

Prepa­ra­tion and com­ple­tion of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure is the first manda­to­ry stage pri­or to the imple­men­ta­tion of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration works, which are car­ried out on the basis of an approved geo­log­i­cal explo­ration project. The results are sub­se­quent­ly used for prepa­ra­tion of geo­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic eval­u­a­tion reports of min­er­al reserves.

Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure is an impor­tant source of infor­ma­tion for gov­ern­ment author­i­ties, enter­pris­es engaged in extrac­tion and pro­cess­ing of min­er­al resources, as well as sci­en­tif­ic and research insti­tu­tions in the fields of geol­o­gy and geo­physics.

State reg­is­tra­tion of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration works is car­ried out in accor­dance with the Sub­soil Code of Ukraine (as amend­ed by Law No. 2805-IX dat­ed 01.12.2022) and the Pro­ce­dure for State Reg­is­tra­tion of Works and Stud­ies Relat­ed to Geo­log­i­cal Explo­ration of Sub­soil.

Accord­ing to Arti­cle 39 of the Sub­soil Code of Ukraine, the State Ser­vice of Geol­o­gy and Sub­soil of Ukraine is respon­si­ble for state reg­is­tra­tion and account­ing of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration works and stud­ies, ensur­ing data col­lec­tion, pro­cess­ing, and com­pli­ance con­trol.

With­in the scope of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure, works and stud­ies may include:

• prospect­ing and explo­ration works for fer­rous, non-fer­rous, rare, rare-earth, radioac­tive met­als, non-metal­lic min­er­als, oil shales, peat, pre­cious met­als, dia­monds, coal, oil, and nat­ur­al gas;
• region­al geo­log­i­cal map­ping and geo­phys­i­cal stud­ies;
• hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal and engi­neer­ing-geo­log­i­cal works;
• envi­ron­men­tal and geo­log­i­cal stud­ies;
• sci­en­tif­ic research, exper­i­men­tal-method­olog­i­cal, and the­mat­ic works;
• spe­cial works, includ­ing con­ti­nen­tal shelf and exclu­sive eco­nom­ic zone stud­ies.

The imple­men­ta­tion of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure may include the fol­low­ing stages:

• study of geo­log­i­cal con­di­tions of the object;
• col­lec­tion and analy­sis of avail­able geo­log­i­cal data;
• geo­phys­i­cal sur­veys;
• drilling and inspec­tion of wells;
• lab­o­ra­to­ry stud­ies of sam­ples;
• cre­ation of a geo­log­i­cal mod­el and resource assess­ment;
• eco­nom­ic fea­si­bil­i­ty assess­ment;
• devel­op­ment of sub­soil use projects.

For the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure, the sub­soil user sub­mits an appli­ca­tion indi­cat­ing an offi­cial email address. In addi­tion, the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments are required:

1. A stan­dard­ized reg­is­tra­tion form (Form 3‑GR) con­tain­ing infor­ma­tion on the planned works;
2. A copy of the doc­u­ment form­ing the basis for reg­is­tra­tion (spe­cial per­mit or explo­ration plan);
3. A sit­u­a­tion­al plan of the area where works are to be car­ried out.

All files sub­mit­ted as part of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure must be signed with a qual­i­fied elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture and saved in PDF/A for­mat in accor­dance with cur­rent leg­is­la­tion.

After approval of the elec­tron­ic cab­i­net of the sub­soil user, reg­is­tra­tion appli­ca­tions are sub­mit­ted elec­tron­i­cal­ly through the offi­cial sys­tem.

Upon com­ple­tion of the Explo­ration Reg­is­tra­tion Pro­ce­dure, the reg­is­tered data are entered into the state jour­nal of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration works and stud­ies.

After reg­is­tra­tion is com­plet­ed and signed by an autho­rized offi­cial of the State Ser­vice of Geol­o­gy and Sub­soil of Ukraine, con­fir­ma­tion is returned to the execu­tor via elec­tron­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

Geo­log­i­cal infor­ma­tion obtained as a result of reg­is­tered works is trans­ferred for per­ma­nent stor­age to the State Sci­en­tif­ic and Pro­duc­tion Enter­prise “State Infor­ma­tion Geo­log­i­cal Fund of Ukraine”.