Recommendations of the Independent Administrator

Project term: Mine site and extraction royalties

As described in detail under Selection of payment flows, the project term for the mine site and extraction royalties is defined on the basis of the payment obligation to the respective govern-ment agency. In practice, these are the payments to the mining authorities of the federal states. The corresponding payments were published as part of the 2023 D-EITI reporting.

With regard to the mine site and extraction royalties, the EITI Standard leaves room for interpre-tation. In accordance with section 4.7, the project term could be defined even more granularly at the level of the licensed or approved field.

Some of the participating companies, such as Wintershall Dea Deutschland GmbH, already report on this level as part of the data enquiry or payment reports. A corresponding entry field is provided in the enquiry form, but is not filled by all companies.

We therefore recommend that all participating companies be made aware of this information as part of the forthcoming data enquiry and that additional information be requested if neces-sary. If all companies submitted complete reports, payments could be shown both on the ba-sis of government agencies and at the level of the licensed or approved field.