Where can I find information about the licences granted?

Register of licences

Legal basis

In Germany, the right to explore and extract is only granted by the state for free-to-mine natural resources. The right to dispose of a free-to-mine natural resource is referred to as a mining license and can be applied for from the mining authorities of the Federal States (see How are projects for the extraction of raw materials approved and monitored?)

In accordance with Section 75 BBergG, the mining authorities keep a so-called mining rights register and a mining rights map in which the mining licenses newly granted under the BBergG or maintained under Section 149 BBergG (so-called “old rights and contracts”) must be entered.

Public access to the mining rights register and the mining rights map was made possible within the scope of the German implementation of the D-EITI. Since 21 July 2017, the following information on granted and maintained mining licenses can be inspected upon request to the mining authorities in accordance with Section 76(3) BBergG without having to demonstrate a legitimate interest:

• Owner
• Fields to which the mining license relates
• Date of application and granting
• Duration
• Mineral resource to which the mining license relates

Mining exploration licenses and permits can also be viewed due to the amendment (see also Explanation of mining licenses).

The competent authorities can also make this information directly accessible to the public, which has already been the case in many federal states for some time. For example, some Federal States publish clear online license registers. Other federal states are planning to set up corresponding systems.

Furthermore, all mining licenses in Germany in the hydrocarbons sector are published in the annual publication “Erdöl und Erdgas in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (Crude oil and natural gas in the Federal Republic of Germany) ^1,2

An overview of all mining licenses can be found at https://d-eiti.de/en/report/how-are-resource-extraction-projects-approved-and-supervised/

Example of an online system: the NiBiS map server

A good example of the publication of information on mining licenses on the Internet is the NIBIS map server maintained by the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) in Lower Saxony. On this website, citizens can obtain information on more than 400 specialised maps on the topics of contaminated sites, mining, soil science, erosion, geology, geothermal energy, geophysics, hydrogeology, engineering geology, climate and natural resources. With regard to mining licenses, the following data and, in some cases, initial decisions issued are regularly available to the public on the NIBIS map server for the Federal States of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein:

• Information on the licence holder
• Coordinates of the licenced area
• Date of granting and validity period of the licence
• Type of mineral resource

Mining licenses in the NiBiS map server

Implementation in other Federal States

Other Federal States have also made it possible to view the mining rights register and the mining rights map online. Examples are Baden­Württemberg at https://maps.lgrb-bw.de/, Berlin and Brandenburg at http://www.geo.brandenburg.de/lbgr/bergbau, North-Rhine Westphalia at https://www.geoportal.nrw/,Saarland at www.geoportal.saarland.de or Saxony-Anhalt. ³ In Thuringia, anyone can inspect the digital mining rights register or the digital mining rights map upon written request (e.g. by submitting an online request via the contact page TLUBN website). In the BergPass application software, the application for access to the mining rights register will be available online in 14 of the 16 Federal States.

¹ State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG) (2023): Annual report “Crude oil and natural gas in the Federal Republic of Germany”. URL: https://www.lbeg.niedersachsen.de/erdoel-erdgas-jahresbericht/jahresbericht-erdol-und-erdgas-in-der-bundesrepublik-deutschland-936.html (Accessed on 9 October 2024).

² Bundesverband Erdgas, Erdöl und Geoenergie e.V. (BVEG) (GERMAN ASSOCIATION FOR NATURAL GAS, PETROLEUM AND GEOTHERMAL ENERGY) (2023): BVEG annual report 2023. URL: https://jahresbericht.bveg.de/ (accessed 9 October 2024).

³ Metadatenverbund (MetaVer) (2024): Use of the search term “Mining licenses Saxony-Anhalt” (Accessed 9 October 2024).