Lithium Power International Ltd (fka LTHHF)

[Dr_Vonschellan]

Slimy_snake Anti-Mining Minister_rummaging around_in Law 18,097_also
https://www-mineria--pa-com.translate.goog/noticias/chile-camara-aprueba-proyecto-que-pospone-cambios-al-sistema-de-concesiones-mineras/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=nui see last paragraph.

I smell a rat in the Anti-Mining Minister's couched altruistic endorsement of the new proposed Law 21,420 delaying the elimination of a good many sweetheart tax exemptions for the mining industry... it appears that by some buddy-buddy quid pro quo she also wants carte blanche to root around in the mining code Law 18,097 but her true final intentions are not clear just yet. Law 18,097 and specifically Article 3 (that FYI we junior lithium miners strongly advocate to "cherry pick" repeal) is the law by which Augusto Pinochet made lithium a Strategic Mineral after we had basically already locked up our Stage One 15,200mtpa LCE export quota license. I sincerely doubt Marcela Hernando is ever going to endorse or work toward repealing Article 3 in this law, but we should fear her adding more draconian restrictions to this law which could detrimentally affect us lithium miners. One detrimental example could be a new formal stipulation that the government have a 51% or above ownership in any new lithium mining operation(s) since the current Pinochet 18,097 regulation is still "open" to a palatable much-less-than-50% government ownership participation.

We need to watch the Ministry of Mining's upcoming proposed changes to law 18,097 like a hawk in 2023.

The Doctor

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Law 18,097 follows for your reference:

Library of the National Congress of Chile - www.leychile.cl - document generated 11-May-2016

Type of Standard :Law 18,097
Date of Publication :21-01-1982
Date of Enactment :07-01-1982
Agency :MINISTRY OF MINING
Title :CONSTITUTIONAL ORGANIC LAW ON MINING CONCESSIONS
Type Version :Latest Version From : 24-02-1990
Effective Date :24-02-1990
Standard Id :29522
URL :https://www.leychile.cl/N?i=29522&f=1990-02-24&p=
(for original also see https://www.resourcedata.org/dataset/rgi-organic-constitutional-law-of-mining-concessions-18097/resource/02483ab7-f8d9-4034-bdf9-711840cb7935 )

LAW N° 18,097
CONSTITUTIONAL ORGANIC LAW ON MINING CONCESSIONS
The Board of Government of the Republic of Chile has given its approval to the following

BILL:
TITLE I
Mining Concessions

Article 1 - Mining concessions may be for exploration or exploitation. Whenever this law refers to a mining concession, it shall be understood to include both.

Article 2 - Mining concessions are real and immovable rights; distinct and independent from the domain of the surface property, even if they have the same owner; opposable to the State and to any person; transferable and transmissible; subject to mortgage and other real rights and, in general, to any act or contract; and governed by the same civil laws as other real estate, except in what is contrary to the provisions of this law or of the Mining Code.

Article 3 - The powers conferred by mining concessions are exercised on the object constituted by the concessionable mineral substances existing in the territorial extension determined by the Mining Code, which consists of a solid whose depth is indefinite within the vertical planes that limit it.

All metallic and non-metallic mineral substances are concessionable, and any interested party may establish a mining concession for them.
In general, all fossil substances, in whatever form they may occur naturally, including those existing in the subsoil of maritime waters subject to the national jurisdiction that have access by tunnels from land.

Concessionable mineral substances contained in waste rock, slag or tailings, abandoned by their owner, are eligible for mining concessions together with other mineral substances.
concessionable mineral substances that may exist in the respective territorial extension.
Liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons, lithium, lithium and other minerals are not eligible for mining concessions, deposits of any species existing in maritime waters subject to national jurisdiction and deposits of any species located, in whole or in part, in maritime waters subject to national jurisdiction and deposits of any species located, in whole or in part, in maritime waters subject to national jurisdiction and deposits of any species located in maritime waters subject to national jurisdiction or in whole or in part within areas determined by law to be of importance for national security with mining effects, without prejudice to mining concessions validly constituted prior to the corresponding declaration of non-concessibility or importance for national security.
Surface clays, artificial salt flats, sands, rocks and other materials directly applicable to construction, all of which are governed by common law or by the special rules dictated by the Mining Code, are not considered mineral substances.

Article 4 - The territorial extension of a mining concession may be divided, but each part may be resulting from the division may not be less than the minimum extension that the concession may have in accordance with the Mining Code, and must be equal to that minimum extension or a multiple thereof; all of which is understood without prejudice to the intellectual division of quota that may be made from the concession. No more than one mining concession may be constituted on the concessionable substances existing in the same territorial extension.

Article 5 - Mining concessions shall be constituted by resolution of the courts, ordinary courts of justice, in proceedings before them and without the intervention of any other authority or person.

Any person may acquire, under any title, such mining concessions, or quotas therein, on the substances determined by this law. The only exceptions are those persons indicated in the Mining Code in provisions that must be approved by a quorum qualified in accordance with the constitutional norms in force.

The person who first initiates the procedure for the constitution of a mining concession with respect to a territorial extension not covered by a mining concession in force shall be considered the discoverer, who shall have preference to constitute it, unless there has been force or fraud to anticipate the procedure or to delay that of the person who actually discovered it first. If the person initiating the procedure is a person who performs mining works by order or commission of another, the procedure shall be understood to have been carried out by the latter.

If the State deems it necessary to exercise the powers to explore exclusively and to exploit concessionable substances, it must act through companies of which it is the owner or in which it has an interest, which constitute or acquire the respective mining concession and which are authorized for such purpose in accordance with the constitutional norms in force.

The Mining Code is responsible for regulating the manner of enforcing the rights of those who are injured by the constitution of the mining concession, either within the constitution procedure or after it.

Once the mining concession has been constituted, the judge will order its registration in accordance with this Code, which may also contemplate some other publicity measure.

Article 6 - The holder of a legally constituted mining concession has a property right over it, protected by the guarantee of number 24 of article 19 of the Political Constitution.
The deprivation of the powers to initiate or continue the exploration, extraction and appropriation of the substances that are the object of a mining concession constitutes deprivation of the essential attributes or powers of the domain thereof.

TITLE II
Rights of Mining Concessionaires

Article 7 - Every mining concessionaire has the exclusive power to test and dig in lands of any domain for mining purposes within the limits of the territorial extension of its concession. Said power shall be exercised in accordance with the norms of this law and shall be subject to the limitations prescribed in the Mining Code. The limitations shall always be established for the purpose of preventing damage to the owner of the land or to provide for purposes of public interest; they shall consist of the need to obtain permission from the owner of the land or from the corresponding authority, as the case may be, to exercise the power to test and dig on certain lands. The Code will establish a concentrated, economical and expeditious procedure to obtain such permission in case of refusal by the person who must grant it. However, only the owner of the land may permit tasting and digging in houses and their outbuildings or on land containing trees or vineyards.

Article 8 - The holders of mining concessions have the right to have the appropriate easements constituted for mining exploration and exploitation.
With respect to these concessions, the surface lands are subject to the encumbrance of being occupied to the full extent necessary for mining works, by ore deposits and dumps, waste, tailings and slag; by ore extraction and processing plants; by substations and power and communication lines, canals, dams,
The concession is subject to the levies for transit and occupation by roads, railroads, pipelines, pipelines, tunnels, inclined planes, platforms, conveyor belts and any other means used to connect the workings of the concession with public roads, mills, railroad stations, shipping ports and consumption centers.
Such concessions are subject in favor of others, and insofar as applicable to them, to the levies established in relation to surface lands, which, without preventing or hindering their exploitation, take advantage of others and, also, to the levy of being crossed by mine shafts and workings destined to provide or facilitate ventilation, drainage and access.
The constitution of easements, their exercise and the corresponding indemnities shall be determined by agreement of the interested parties or by judicial resolution in the special brief procedure contemplated by law or, if the law does not contemplate such procedure, in the procedure summary of general application.
Easements in favor of mining concessions are essentially transitory; they may not be used for purposes other than those for which they have been granted, and will cease when their use is terminated. They may be extended or restricted according to the development of the work related to them.
The holders of mining concessions will have the water rights established by law.

Article 9 - Every mining concessionaire may defend his concession by all the means provided by law, both with respect to the State and to private parties; for such purpose, he may file actions such as claims, possession actions and any other actions provided by law, and obtain the pertinent indemnities.
The concessionaire may request from the competent judge the appropriate measures for the conservation and defense of its concession. In particular, the concessionaire has the right to visit mining works that may affect its rights, in the cases, in the manner and with the effects determined by the Mining Code.

Article 10.- The exploration concessionaire has the exclusive right:
1.- to freely carry out excavations and other mining exploration works, except for the observance of the police and safety regulations and the provisions of articles 7 and 8;
2.- to initiate legal proceedings to establish an exploitation concession, within the limits and term of duration of the exploration concession, the exercise of which will give it a preferential right to establish such concession even after the termination of the latter, in the manner determined by the Mining Code;
3.- to own the concessionable minerals that it needs to extract for exploration and research purposes, and
4.- to be compensated, in case of expropriation, for the property damage actually caused.

Article 11.- The exploitation concessionaire has the exclusive right:
1.- to freely explore and exploit the mines on which its concession is based, and to carry out all actions leading to these objectives, except for the observance of the
police and security regulations and the provisions of articles 7° and 8° ;
2.- to become the owner of all the mineral substances that it extracts and that are concessionable at the date of being judicially constituted, included within the
limits of its concession, and
3.- to be compensated, in the event of expropriation of the concession, for the property damage that has been effectively caused, which consists of the commercial value of the
The concession holder shall have the power to initiate and continue the extraction and appropriation of the substances that are the object of the concession. In the absence of agreement, the value of such damage shall be fixed by the judge, after the opinion of experts. The experts, for the purposes of determining the amount of compensation, shall establish the commercial value of the concession, calculating, on the basis of the reserves of substances granted that the expropriated party demonstrates, the present value of the net cash flows of the concession.

TITLE III
Obligations of mining concessionaires

Article 12.- The protection regime referred to in the seventh paragraph of number 24 of article 19 of the Political Constitution shall consist of the annual and anticipated payment of a patent for fiscal benefit, in the form and amount determined by the Mining Code. Debts arising from unpaid patents may only be made effective in the respective concession, without prejudice to their expiration in accordance with letter a) of the first paragraph of article 18.

The amount paid for the mining patent for an exploitation concession will be imputed to the payment of the income tax derived from the mining activity carried out in the respective concession, in accordance with the provisions of the Mining Code.

Article 13.- The exploration concessionaire may not establish exploitation, without prejudice to the provisions of number 3 of article 10.

The mining concessionaire is obliged to indemnify the damage caused to the owner of the surface land or to other concessionaires on the occasion of the works he performs, in accordance with the procedures and regulations established by the Mining Code. He may be required to provide prior surety for the value of the indemnities, in accordance with that Code.

Article 15.- Every mining concessionaire, as such, has the obligation to abide by the norms related to the State's right of first option to purchase, at the usual market price and modality, the mineral products that this law declares to be of strategic value because they contain certain substances in significant presence.

The Mining Code will establish the form, opportunity and modalities in which the State may exercise this right; the sanctions for any infractions incurred, and the manner of resolving any difficulties that may arise.

Mineral products in which thorium or uranium have a significant presence are of strategic value.

For the purposes of this article and the following article, a substance is understood to have a significant presence within a mineral product when it is susceptible of being
reduced from a technical and economic point of view.

Article 16.- The circumstance that a deposit contains non-concessionable substances does not prevent the constitution of a mining concession with respect to the existing concessionable substances in the same deposit.

The mining concession does not entitle its holder to appropriate non-concessionable substances with significant presence within the appropriate mineral product. The state may take possession of them, in accordance with the provisions of the Mining Code.

TITLE IV
Duration and termination of mining concessions

Without prejudice to the provisions of the following article, the term of the exploration concession may not exceed four years; and the term of the exploitation concession shall be indefinite.

Article 18.- Mining concessions shall expire, extinguishing the ownership of the holders thereof:
a) by judicial resolution declaring the land free, if there are no bidders in the public auction of the judicial proceeding originated by the non-payment of the patent, and
b) for failure of the concessionaire to request the registration of its concession within the term established in the Mining Code.
The exploration concession expires, in addition, for violation of the provisions of Article 13.
Mining concessions are also extinguished by resignation of its holder, in accordance with the law.

FINAL TITLE
From the validity of this law

Article 19.- This law shall enter into force simultaneously with the new Mining Code.

Transitional Provisions

Transitory Article 1 - The mining concessions in force at the date of entry into force of the new Mining Code shall subsist under the rule of said Code. However, as to their benefits and charges and as to their extinction, the provisions of said Code shall prevail.

Transitory Article 2 - The mining concessions superimposed by application of Articles 82 and 83 of the Mining Code of 1932 shall remain in force, except for those derived from the application of the rule contained in the final sentence of the first paragraph of the latter Article. Likewise, overlapping mining concessions shall remain in force.
constituted by virtue of legal provisions in force prior to that Code that allowed the overlapping because of the fact that they belonged to different substances.
In order to prevent the creation of new overlapping mining concessions, the new Mining Code will establish how to determine which of the existing overlapping mining concessions will be extended to the rest of the substances that are already in force.
The Code shall also determine the manner in which the current mining concession shall be extended. Likewise, said Code shall determine the manner in which the current mining concession shall be extended, if only one, to the substances that were not granted to it.
For the purposes of the preceding paragraphs, the following considerations shall apply:
1. that coal, thorium and uranium were included in the first paragraph of article 3 of the 1932 Mining Code, and 2. that coal, thorium and uranium were included in the first paragraph of article 3 of the 1932 Mining Code.
2.- that the substances indicated in Article 4 of that Code, except for oil in liquid or gaseous state, were referred to in the second paragraph of the aforementioned Article 3.
The provisions of the preceding paragraphs are without prejudice to the mining concessions established by application of the provisions of transitory article 4, which concessions shall be understood to have been established prior to the extensions referred to in this article.

Transitory Article 3: The owners of properties over rocks, sands and other materials directly applicable to construction constituted for another specific industrial or ornamental application, in force at the date of publication of the new Mining Code, will continue to hold their rights as concessionaires of the new Mining Code. Exploitation, under the rules and conditions set forth in this law and the new Code with respect to these mining concessions. Once the concession has expired or been extinguished, these substances shall revert to the owner of the land, and if such belongings belong to the owner of the land, they shall expire immediately by the sole authority of the law.

Transitory Article 4 - Within 180 days following the publication of the new Mining Code, only the actions to initiate the judicial procedure to establish a mining concession on the lands where they were located, carried out within that period by the state agencies or companies indicated in the Mining Code, shall be valid with respect to the deposits or substances that by virtue of this law cease to be reserved to the State. The provisions of this article are without prejudice to the transfers to which these agencies or companies are bound by validly executed contracts.
The overlaps that occur by virtue of the preceding paragraph are valid.
Also valid are the overlaps that occur as a result of the manifestations that, within the term established by the new Mining Code, must be submitted by holders of judicial concessions to explore, holders of concessions to explore, holders of concessions to explore, holders of concessions to explore, holders of concessions to explore, holders of concessions to explore, holders of concessions to explore, and holders of concessions to explore.
The Company's management and the holders of administrative concessions to explore or exploit, as well as the holders of applications for such concessions, with respect to the substance or substances granted or applied for.

- JOSE T. MERINO CASTRO, Admiral, Commander in Chief of the Navy, Member of the Government Junta

- FERNANDO MATTHEI AUBEL, Air General, Commander in Chief of the Air Force, Member of the Government Junta

- CESAR MENDOZA DURAN, General Director of Carabineros, Member of the Government Junta

- CESAR RAUL BENAVIDES ESCOBAR, Lieutenant General of the Army, Member of the Government Junta.

Inasmuch as it has pleased me to approve the foregoing law, I hereby sanction and sign it in token of promulgation. Be it enacted as a law of the Republic.
Register with the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, publish in the Official Gazette and insert in the Official Gazette of the Office of the Comptroller General.
Santiago, January seventh, nineteen hundred and eighty-two (January 7, 1982)

- AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE, General of the Army, President of the Republic.

- Hernán Felipe Errázuriz Correa, Minister of Mining.