Exploration is the pure cash-burning phase of a mining project: the company drills, analyses and reports for years before a single tonne can be sold. For a foreign investor, the central legal questions of this phase are who an exploration licence is issued to, how long it holds, and what the exploration result buys when the project turns to extraction — because the entire value of exploration sits in that priority right.
May foreign investors explore for minerals
Yes, through an enterprise established in Vietnam and the exploration licensing process of the Law on Geology and Minerals 54/2024/QH15 — the law sets no separate nationality barrier for exploration. The exploration licence defines the area, the mineral, its term and the minimum work programme the company commits to perform. Licensing conditions focus on technical and financial capacity for the drilling programme and the area’s consistency with planning. An area that already has approved exploration results or sits inside another party’s exploitation licence is not open ground for a new exploration licence.
Procedure and term of the exploration licence
The application runs through the geology and minerals authority under the allocation in Decree 193/2025/ND-CP, with the exploration plan as its central technical document. The licence term is set by the approved plan and actual work needs, and can be extended where the company has performed its committed programme and still has exploration volume to complete. During exploration the company must report progress and results periodically; abandoning the committed programme or failing to report is a ground for revocation — an exploration licence is not an indefinite seat-holder over a mining area.
Costs and financial duties of the exploration phase
No grant fee arises yet in exploration — that appears only at exploitation licensing — but the company bears: payment for using state-invested geological data where such data is used, licensing fees, temporary land costs for drill sites, and the duty to rehabilitate drill locations afterwards. If exploration produces recovered minerals along the way, handling them must follow the recovery registration mechanism with corresponding duties; they may not be sold off at will.
From exploration results to extraction: the priority right
The greatest legal value of an exploration licence is priority standing: the organisation that explored and obtained approved exploration results and reserves in an area is prioritised for the exploitation licence in that very area under Law 54/2024/QH15, instead of competing from scratch like an outsider. This priority is conditional and time-bound — a company that lets its exploration results sleep too long without moving to extraction procedures can lose the advantage to an auction mechanism or another party. The path from exploration report to exploitation file should therefore be planned the moment final drill results land, not when the investor feels the market is favourable.
Frequently Asked Questions
May foreign investors explore for minerals in Vietnam?
Yes, through an enterprise established in Vietnam and the exploration licensing process under the Law on Geology and Minerals 54/2024/QH15. There is no nationality ban; conditions concern technical and financial capacity, the committed exploration programme and the area’s planning consistency.
How long does a mineral exploration licence last?
The term is set by the approved exploration plan and actual work needs, and can be extended where the company has performed its committed programme and still has volume to complete. Periodic reporting is mandatory; abandoning the programme is a ground for revocation.
What fees apply during mineral exploration?
No grant fee arises at the exploration stage, but there is payment for using state-invested geological data where used, licensing fees, temporary land costs for drill sites and drill-site rehabilitation duties. Minerals recovered during exploration must be registered and handled as prescribed, not sold freely.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council