📋 Tender Overview
The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM), through Supreme Decree 028-2023-EM, issued measures to simplify the procedures for environmental certification and water use permits required for mining exploration, an activity considered the fundamental pillar on which rests the sustainability of mining activity.
The device that modifies the Environmental Protection Regulation for Mining Exploration Activities allows the holders to simultaneously process the approval of the environmental study and the authorization of water use required for mining exploration. In this sense, the evaluation and opinion issued by the National Water Authority (ANA), during the evaluation procedure of the environmental study, will be sufficient support for it to also grant authorization for water use.
In this way, the holders will present to the MINEM, which will act as a Single Window, all the documentation required for both procedures. Once the MINEM approves the environmental study, with a prior favorable opinion from ANA, it will notify said entity to grant authorization for the use of water without the need for the owner to initiate a new procedure.
In case the holders do not opt ??for simultaneous processing; Now, by virtue of DS No. 028-2023-EM, they will be able to process the authorization for the use of water immediately after obtaining approval of the environmental study. This also makes it possible to simplify, in terms of time, the paperwork since previously said authorization was processed after the procedures for approving the environmental study and authorizing the start of activities had been completed.
Furthermore, for this Supreme Decree to achieve the desired objective, the MINEM and ANA have interconnected their computer platforms as part of the implementation of the Mining Sector Single Window (VUD) MINEM.
In addition to these measures, the MINEM is close to approving new modifications to the regulatory framework that regulates the content of environmental studies, in order to stop requiring holders to present those requirements that do not directly or indirectly affect the technical evaluation. .
These measures will considerably reduce the processing times carried out by mining owners to obtain approval of the environmental study and authorization for water use, without this meaning a relaxation of the technical quality of the evaluations.
