Mineral groups, licensing and auctions: the four groups under Article 6, who licenses each since 1 January 2026, mineral planning and the areas closed to mining, auctions of mining rights and the widened exceptions, the fee for granting mining rights, and how to identify the right licence and authority

Why the group matters

Under the Law on Minerals 2010 the licensing authority depended on a mix of mineral type and scale. Law No. 54/2024/QH15 replaced that with a single organising concept: the group to which the mineral belongs by its use. The group decides who licenses the mine, whether an exploration licence is needed, whether the area is likely to be auctioned, the length of the licence and, for Group I, whether the mineral may also be strategic. Getting the group right is therefore the first step in any mineral project, and the answer is not always obvious: limestone may be Group II if it feeds a cement plant and Group III if it is crushed for road base, and sand is Group III for construction but Group IV if suited only for fill.

Article 6(1) defines the four groups. Group I comprises metallic minerals, energy minerals, precious and semi-precious stones and industrial minerals: coal, iron, bauxite, copper, gold, tin, tungsten, titanium, rare earths, apatite, graphite and the like. Group II comprises minerals used as materials in the construction-materials industry for producing cement, tiles, sanitary ware, construction glass, facing and art stone, industrial lime and refractories. Group III comprises common construction materials not falling within Groups II or IV, together with peat, mineral mud, natural mineral water and natural hot water. Group IV comprises minerals suitable only for fill, foundations, irrigation works and disaster prevention: clay, hill earth, earth mixed with rock, sand, gravel or pebbles, and sand other than river, lake and offshore sand (FAQ 103). Article 6(2) leaves the detailed list to the Government, which sets it in Article 4 of Decree No. 193/2025/ND-CP, and allows the Government to decide the group of a mineral with several uses.

Who licenses each group since 1 January 2026

Law No. 147/2025/QH15 rewrote Article 108 with effect from 1 January 2026. The minister of the ministry assigned as focal point for geology and minerals issues exploration and mining licences for Group I minerals, other than Group I minerals in small and dispersed areas that the ministry has delineated and announced, and for minerals in sea areas beyond provincial administrative boundaries. Since 15 September 2026 that minister is the Minister of Industry and Trade. The minister also handles the extension, re-issue, adjustment, surrender, transfer and revocation of the licences within that remit.

The chairperson of the provincial People's Committee licenses Group II, Group III and Group IV minerals, Group I minerals in the small and dispersed areas, and salvage mining, and handles the extension, re-issue, adjustment, surrender, transfer and revocation of those licences. Where an area lies in more than one province, the province holding the largest share decides after consulting the others. The provinces' share of licensing was already large under the 2010 law, but the 2026 change makes the provincial chairperson the licensing authority for every quarry and every construction-material mine in the country, which is the bulk of licences by number.

Two categories sit above both. Every exploration or mining licence for rare earths, and every transfer of one, requires the Prime Minister's written approval before the minister acts (Articles 110c and 110d of Decree No. 193/2025/ND-CP), and the Prime Minister approves licences for special strategic minerals generally (Article 108(4) of the decree). Licences issued before 1 January 2026 by an authority that has since lost the competence are handled, for extension, adjustment or revocation, by the authority now competent, unless the holder elects to complete a pending application under the procedures in force when it was filed (Article 111).

Mineral planning and the map of mineral areas

No licence may be granted outside the planning. Articles 11 to 13 provide for a national plan for Group I minerals and for Group II minerals, prepared by the ministries and approved by the Prime Minister, and for the management of Group III and Group IV minerals through the provincial plan. The national plan currently in force is the plan for the exploration, mining, processing and use of minerals for 2021 to 2030 with a vision to 2050, approved by Decision No. 866/QD-TTg in 2023, which lists the deposits to be explored and mined in each period and sets processing objectives. Group III construction materials for listed public projects may since 2026 be licensed without reference to the provincial management plan under the new clauses inserted into Article 55.

Within that frame the law designates several kinds of area. The areas planned for mineral activity are where licences are granted, by auction or otherwise. Small and dispersed areas (Article 27) contain Group I or Group II minerals suited only to small-scale mining and are licensed by the province. National mineral reserve areas (Articles 28 to 34) hold unmined Group I and Group II minerals back for future use; other investment projects may be carried out in them only after an assessment of their effect on the reserve, and if such a project is later terminated to release the minerals, its investor is compensated under Article 34. Finally, prohibited and temporarily prohibited areas are closed to mineral activity altogether.

Prohibited and temporarily prohibited areas

Article 26(1) requires an area to be delineated as prohibited where it contains, or is protected for, ranked historical and cultural relics and landscapes or natural heritage; special-use and protection forest land, geological conservation areas and marine protected areas; defence and security land; religious and belief land; or the protection corridors of defence works, transport, irrigation, hydropower and dyke works, water supply and waste treatment systems, energy and petroleum works, and telecommunications infrastructure. Article 26(2) allows an area to be temporarily prohibited for defence and security, for the conservation of nature, fisheries resources or relics under consideration, for disaster prevention and recovery, and for riverbanks and coastlines that are eroding or at risk of erosion. The provincial People's Committee delineates both kinds of area and submits them for the Prime Minister's approval (Article 26(4)).

Exploration or mining inside such an area is possible only by special approval under Article 26(3), as amended by Law No. 147/2025/QH15, and Article 14 of Decree No. 193/2025/ND-CP sets the procedure. If an area already under licence is later declared prohibited or temporarily prohibited, the exploration or mining licence is revoked and the holder is compensated under Articles 52(4) and 66(5). A buyer of a licence should therefore check not only the area's status today but any pending delineation affecting it, particularly near rivers, forests and planned infrastructure.

Auctions of mining rights

Article 100(1) requires mining rights to be auctioned in areas planned for mineral activity, in areas for salvage mining and for Group IV minerals, except in the non-auction cases. The auction is organised by the licensing authority, so MOIT for Group I areas within its remit and the provincial People's Committee for the rest, on the basis of an annual auction plan approved under Article 144 of Decree No. 193/2025/ND-CP. Articles 101 to 106 of the law and Articles 143 to 149 of the decree set the principles, the starting price, the bid increment and deposit, the eligibility of bidders, the rights and duties of the winner, the calculation of the fee in auctioned areas and the annulment of results. An auction proceeds only if at least two eligible bidders take part (FAQ 105).

Bidders must be entities that could hold the licence that will follow: an enterprise under the Law on Enterprises (or, for exploration, a foreign enterprise with a branch or representative office), with the financial capacity required for exploration or mining. What is auctioned is, in substance, the rate R in the fee formula: the winning bid replaces the rate in Appendix III of the decree. Auctions take two forms: auctions of areas where exploration has not yet been carried out, after which the winner must apply for an exploration licence, and auctions of areas where exploration results have already been recognised, after which the winner applies directly for a mining licence. Where an area holds two or more minerals, Article 148 of the decree decides which one is auctioned. Article 104(2) of the law and Article 148a of the decree set the time limits within which the winner must file its licence application; a winner that misses them, or fails to pay the sums due, risks the annulment of the result under Article 106 and the loss of its deposit.

Where mining rights are not auctioned

Article 100(2) allows areas to be designated in which mining rights are granted without auction, for energy security, defence and security, the efficient use of strategic and important minerals and materials for national key projects, urgent public investment projects and national target programmes, and Law No. 147/2025/QH15 widened the list. Article 143 of Decree No. 193/2025/ND-CP now sets the criteria: areas of radioactive minerals and coal (other than small and dispersed coal and peat); areas in the national border belt; areas prioritised for deeper or extended exploration by an existing miner; areas selected by organisations that took part in geological surveys; Group III and Group IV construction materials for the public projects listed in Article 55(1a) of the law; areas covered by intergovernmental cooperation agreements; areas of strategic and important minerals; areas that have failed at auction three times; limestone and clay for cement, cement additives and feedstock for processing plants already in operation; and areas needed to grant a mining licence to an explorer with priority rights, or to extend, re-issue, adjust or transfer an existing licence. MOIT delineates the non-auction areas within its remit for the Prime Minister's approval, and the provincial People's Committee approves those within its own (Article 100(3) and (4); Article 143a of the decree).

In a non-auction area the explorer is selected under Article 39 of the law and Articles 30 and 31 of the decree. The organisation named in the approval of the non-auction area is selected first; otherwise the area is published, and if more than one applicant files, priority goes to the applicant with the largest owner's equity that meets the financial capacity rule, then to the applicant with a clean record of financial obligations in existing mines. In the national border belt only domestic investors may be selected, with the written consent of the border authorities (Article 30(2) of the decree), which excludes companies treated as foreign investors under the investment law. The fee for granting mining rights is then calculated at the Appendix III rate rather than an auction bid. For a foreign investor building a processing plant, the cement and processing-feedstock criterion is the most useful: an investor with an operating plant may be able to secure its feedstock deposit without competing at auction.

The fee for granting mining rights

Article 98 of the law requires every miner to pay a fee for granting mining rights (tiền cấp quyền khai thác khoáng sản). Under Article 132 of Decree No. 193/2025/ND-CP it is calculated as T = Q x G x R, where Q is the reserve or volume on which the fee is charged under Article 133, G is the price for calculating the fee under Article 134 (the provincial People's Committee's price for natural resources tax multiplied by a conversion coefficient in Appendix IV), and R is the rate in Appendix III of the decree for non-auction areas or the winning rate for auctioned areas (FAQ 107). Where a licence covers several minerals, the fee is calculated separately for each.

The total is divided by the number of years of the licence and paid annually: the first year's instalment within 24 working days of the tax authority's notice, and later instalments by 31 May each year (Article 137). The fee is then settled against actual output under Articles 139 and 140, so that over- and under-payments are corrected, and it can be adjusted when the licence is adjusted. If mining is suspended at the State's request through no fault of the miner, no fee is due for the years of suspension. The fee is not a tax, but it is collected by the provincial tax office, and arrears are a ground for refusing extensions and transfers.