The effects of the mining operation activities permit process on the mining sector in Turkey

The most important problems faced by mining are the long permit application periods and the obstacle to bureaucracy. In Turkey, mining operating license and operation permits are given by the Mining and Petroleum Affairs Department (MAPEG) affiliated to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR). However, in order to start operation activities today, it is necessary to obtain permissions from 15 to 20 separate units of 8–10 different Ministries. The requirement to obtain permission from such a large number of institutions in order to carry out mining operation activities causes delays and investment losses in the permit process. In order to find solutions to these problems, some questions were asked to mining companies in 2018 through the SurveyMonkey. According to the survey, other permits in Turkey (such as “landownership permit” and “business license and work permit”) are mostly given to mining enterprises in a period of 3–34 months. This indicates that the rule that “permits required for mining operation activities should be completed within 3 months at the latest in the EIA process” does not work in Turkey. In addition, this caused an average investment loss of 21% within the total investment amounts of mining enterprises. This causes Turkey's ranking in the world in investment attractiveness index (IAI) and other categories to decrease or become unstable. Moreover, it causes many mining investors to stop investing in Turkey. Completion of the permit processes within a certain period of time will remove a major obstacle for the mining investor. Mining enterprises require that the operation permit be issued within a period of 2–6 months from the receipt of the operating license. Increasing license security will reduce the risks in mining investments, which will enable the mining sector to develop rapidly. •The permits to be obtained by mining investors in order to carry out mining operations in Turkey was explained.•It was explained how long each of these permits was given by the competent authorities.•In countries where mining is carried out to complete permit processes in a certain period of time, universal recommendations are provided to mining policy makers.•Legislative changes to be made in the permit processes were explained in order to avoid mining investment losses.•It was explained how to increase the ranking of a country in the world in terms of investment attractiveness index.