The first question for every stone, sand and fill project is ‘where do we apply’ — and the answer changed fundamentally under the Law on Geology and Minerals 54/2024/QH15: licensing power for common construction minerals is now strongly decentralised to provinces, with a streamlined regime for Group IV minerals. Filing at the wrong level does not just waste time; it can cost the project a whole construction season because the procedure restarts at the correct authority.
The current decentralisation map
Under the allocation mechanism of Law 54/2024/QH15 and Decree 193/2025/ND-CP, provincial People’s Committees issue most exploration and exploitation licences for common construction minerals and Group III and IV minerals within the province. The central level, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, keeps authority over large-scale cases, multi-province areas, sea areas and strategic minerals as prescribed. The provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment is the receiving and advisory body — the direct counterpart for most ordinary-material mine files.
Procedure and realistic timing
A licence file for an ordinary-material mine passes through layers: investment policy approval or its equivalent, reserve approval where exploration is needed, auction of mining rights where the area is designated for auction, the licence application with mine design, the EIA, and grant-fee determination. Each step has a statutory clock, but the full journey usually takes longer because layers run in sequence and depend on reserve-approval sessions and the province’s auction calendar. Project planners should schedule licensing in quarters, not weeks, and lock the province’s auction timetable at the outset.
Group IV: what the streamlined regime changes
Group IV minerals — including fill materials and certain common minerals — follow a lighter sequence, with some small-scale extraction serving works handled by registration or confirmation instead of full licensing. Streamlining cuts paperwork, not obligations: the operator must still declare output and pay grant fees, environmental protection fees and resource tax accordingly, and is still sanctioned for mining outside the registered scope. Confusing ‘streamlined’ with ‘free’ is the most common reason fill-soil sites get penalised despite having filed something at the start.
Common decentralisation mistakes
Three errors repeat: filing at district level out of old administrative habit although authority now concentrates at the province; assuming a small mine escapes auction; and applying for extraction before checking the minerals plan and local land-use plan. Each ends the same way — the file returned after weeks of waiting. The cheapest preventive medicine is one official question-and-answer exchange with the Department of Agriculture and Environment on the authority and auction status of the specific mine area, before spending on exploration and design.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a construction-stone licence issued by the province or the centre?
In most cases the province: provincial People’s Committees license common construction minerals under the decentralisation of the Law on Geology and Minerals 54/2024/QH15 and Decree 193/2025/ND-CP, with the Department of Agriculture and Environment as receiving point. The centre keeps only large-scale, multi-province, sea-area or strategic cases as prescribed.
How long does licensing an ordinary-material mine take?
Each procedural step has a statutory deadline, but the full journey — investment approval, exploration and reserve approval, auction where designated, licensing and grant-fee approval — usually spans several quarters because the layers run in sequence. Plan in quarters and confirm the province’s auction calendar early.
Does fill-soil extraction need a mining licence?
Commercial fill-soil extraction is Group IV mineral activity and must follow the streamlined regime — licensing or registration depending on the case — under Law 54/2024/QH15. Only digging for one’s own household construction within one’s own land falls outside licensing.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council