The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP)

Mining Licensing and Legislations

Mining Pages

Important Proclamations for mining investors:

Mining Operation Proclamation No.678/2010 (as amended by Proclamation No 816/2013) PDF
Transaction of Minerals Proclamation No. 1144/2019 PDF
Environmental Impact Assessment Proclamation no. 299/2002 PDF
Commercial Registration and Licensing Proclamation No 980/2016 PDF
Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Proclamation No. 210/2000 PDF
Cooperative Society Proclamation No. 985/2016 PDF
Organizations of Civil Societies Proclamation No. 1113/2019 PDF
Establishment of Cooperative Association Proclamation No.274/2002 PDF
Labour Proclamation No. 377/2003 PDF
መሸኛ ደብዳቤ እና አባሪ PDF

Important Directives

Area Limits_የፈቃድ ክልል ጣሪያ PDF
Duty Free_ከቀረጥ ነጻ PDF
Exploration Directive 3/2007 PDF
Community Development Plan and Fund Administration Directive PDF
License Granting_ፈቃድ አሰጣጥ Directive 01_2003 PDF

Mining Licensing and Legislations

Ethiopia has a stable legal and regulatory framework in place. For the sake of convenience, the most important of Ethiopia’s Federal mining laws are summarized below.

Licensing

The MoMP issues seven (7) types of mining license, known officially as ‘mineral operations licences’, in total. These are:

A Reconnaissance License allows its holders to do a general search for any mineral in a particular region. It is issued for an 18 month period, and is non-renewable and non-exclusive.
An Exploration License allows its holders to search for any mineral in a specified region by means of photographs, images, geological, geochemical, geophysical or drilling. This License is exclusive, and is initially issued for 3 years. An Exploration license can be renewed further up to a maximum of 10 years in total. However, upon each renewal the license holder is required to relinquish a portion of the licensed exploration area unless they can declare a resource. See Proclamation No 816/2013 for more details about how this works.
A Retention License can be issued to an applicant that has discovered a mineral resource of economic significance, but which cannot be developed immediately due to adverse market conditions or because the required processing technology might be unavailable. This is an exclusive license that is initially issued for 3 years. After the 3 year period it may be renewed once more for an additional 3 years.
An Artisanal Mining License is issued either to an individual or a small or micro enterprise whose mining operation is mostly manual and does not involve employed workers. It is exclusive, non-renewable and is issued for a maximum of 2 years.
A Special Small Scale Mining License is issued to holders of an Artisanal Mining License who now have the capacity to employ machinery in their mining operations. A Special Small Scale Mining License is exclusive, and is only issued to holders of an Artisanal Mining License. It is initially issued for 10 years, after which it needs to be renewed every 5 years.
A Small Scale Mining License is issued a mining operation whose annual run-of-mine ore does not exceed a specified amount. The maximum allowed run-of-mine ore amount varies depending on the relevant mineral. A Special Small Scale Mining License is exclusive, is initially issued for 10 years, and after the initial 10 year period, it needs to be renewed every 5 years. The maximum run-of-mine ore for a Small Scale Mining license can be found on our Applying for a Mineral Operations License page.
A Large Scale Mining License is issued to a mining operation whose annual run-off of mine ore exceeds the maximums amounts allowed under a Small Scale License. It is exclusive, initially issued for 20 years, and after the initial 20 year period, it needs to be renewed every 10 years.

More detail can be found in Mining Operation Proclamation No.678/2010 (as amended by Proclamation No 813/2013).

Royalties

Ethiopia has some of the most attractive royalty rates in Africa. The holders of Large Scale Mineral Operations Licenses are required to pay royalties at the following rates:

Precious minerals 7%
Semi-precious minerals 6%
Metallic minerals 5%
Industrial minerals 4%
Construction minerals 3%
Salt 4%

Royalties can sometimes be waived in special circumstances.

More detail can be found in Mining Operation Proclamation.

The royalties that holders of an Artisanal, Special Small Scale, and Small Scale Licenses are required to pay are determined by laws of the Regional State in which that license is issued.

We would ask holders of such licenses to be in touch with the relevant Regional State official to determine the amounts they are required to pay in royalties.

MoM