MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Trans-Baikal Region and Magadan Region, including the Kolyma region, are set to be designated pilot regions where private gold mining may be legalized after passage of the bill "On Free Inwash," Pavel Volkov, deputy minister for Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, said on Wednesday.
"Activities were first suggested only in separate regions, Magadan and Trans-Baikal. <…> We designated them as pilot [regions] for the first two years. Further on, [other] Far Eastern regions may join [the program]," he said at a meeting of the relevant State Duma (lower house of parliament) committee.
The bill is mainly aimed at encouraging people to get involved in legal gold mining, Volkov stressed. A Russian citizen would have to register as an individual entrepreneur [sole proprietor], after which he would be entitled to get a mining plot by filing an online application. Meanwhile, the regions themselves will be able to designate certain territories where such activities will be allowed on a pilot basis as agreed upon with the relevant federal agencies.
The bill "On Free Inwash" was drafted at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its goal is to regulate mining stream-gold by sole proprietors at minor placer deposits that have little promise for industrial extraction or at depleted (legacy) placers, as well as to stipulate the terms for such mining activities and the procedure for selling mined gold to the government.
A related bill on gold mining by physical entities was approved by the legislative drafting commission in late March and was submitted to the State Duma in April.