On November 3, 2021, from 2:45 pm to 5:00 pm at the Perła Południa Hotel in Rytro, an open meeting of the Committee for Sustainable Mineral Resource Management was held, devoted to discussing the draft government document, State Raw Materials Policy, with an introductory presentation.

Meeting agenda:

1. Beginning of the meeting preceded by the opening of the jubilee XXX Conference Current and prospects for the management of mineral resources.
2. Reading the letter of the Chief National Geologist.
3. Speech constituting an introduction to the discussion on the draft document, State Raw Material Policy.
4. Overview of the detailed objectives of the State Raw Material Policy document:

• • Providing access to raw materials from mineral deposits, groundwater and Earth's heat;
  • Exploration, identification and documentation of mineral deposits;
  • Providing favorable legal conditions for current and future investors as well as development and modernization of the geological and mining industry;
  • Protection of mineral deposits,
  • International cooperation in securing access to raw materials;
  • Recovering raw materials from anthropogenic deposits and supporting the development of a circular economy;
  • Ensuring the consistency of strategies implemented by companies of significant importance to the state economy and companies implementing a public mission with the activities of the Government Plenipotentiary for the State Raw Material Policy;
  • Dissemination of knowledge.

5. Panel discussion on the State Raw Materials Policy project, as a result of which key directions for further work on the document were indicated:

• • In order to be able to meet the country's raw material needs, it is necessary to advance works related to the exploration, identification and documentation of deposits and the extraction of mineral minerals, to which it is also worth inviting foreign investors. The State's Raw Material Policy, as well as the relevant geological and mining law and its executive acts, should create an appropriate climate for such cooperation.
  • Due to the discussion that has been going on for several years, and in the context of conflicting views, in the present document the role of the Polish Geological Institute as the state geological service is still not clearly defined. Therefore, the objectives and tasks of this service should be clearly defined, along with the provision of adequate resources for the implementation of its tasks.
  • In the draft of the State Raw Material Policy, and especially in the current draft amendment to the geological and mining law, many tasks were introduced, which are to belong to mining supervision. According to Higher Mining Office, the competences of this body would be significantly extended.
  • In successive State Raw Material Policy projects that appear one after another, it is evident that the concepts of the raw material policy are changing. However, first the directions of this policy should be finally determined, and only after its adoption, appropriate legal changes should be proposed. Simultaneous work on the State Raw Material Policy and a major amendment to the geological and mining law may lead to internal contradictions.
  • The draft of the State Raw Materials Policy still omits a very important aspect of the protection of prospective deposits (areas). The balance of prospective resources should be performed periodically every few years, because the needs related to raw materials are changing, and research methods are improving.
  • The State Raw Material Policy draft omits social aspects related to access to mineral deposits and the possibilities of their development. This applies both to the basic knowledge of the society on, inter alia, sources of origin and directions of use of raw materials, as well as inappropriate methods used by investors in dealing with communication with communities potentially affected by mining in the past.

6. Closing the meeting.