Logo

Mining

The goal of the Environmental Board's Earth Crust Office is to ensure the sustainable use and existence of non-renewable mineral resources also in the future.

A mineral resource is an organic or mineral resource found in the earth's crust that can be used cost-effectively. In Estonia, seven mineral resources are mined and used mainly: oil shale, dolomite, limestone, peat, gravel, sand and clay.

As the population and standard of living increase, so does the extraction of mineral resources, as most of our building materials, fertilizers and energy come from the earth's crust.

Mineral resources are often an unnoticed foundation of the economy and modern way of life, and despite their growing circular economy, abandoning or reducing their use is not expected.

Põlevkivikaevandus

  • issue environmental permits necessary for the exploration and use of mineral resources;
  • applications for transfer of ore / pavement; 
  • gives approvals for the remediation of mined land. 

As of 1 April 2020, declarations of fees for the right to extract mineral resources can be submitted in the new environmental decision information system KOTKAS.

Declarations for the first quarter of 2020 can no longer be submitted to the Environmental Board via the Environmental Board's e-services. The e-services of the Environmental Board will remain open only for the submission of correction declarations from previous years.

The webinar on submitting mineral resource fee declarations can be viewed on Youtube. More information on environmental charges can be found HERE. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The following development plans are currently being developed to guide the use of mineral resources:

In addition, the basic principles of crustal policy until 2050 have been prepared

Estonian peatlands have been inventoried and in order to better use the data, the data of the Institute of Geology of Tallinn University of Technology have been consolidated into a single digital database - the Estonian Peat Research Database.

Under the leadership of the Ministry of the Environment, progress will be made gradually with the arrangement of cut-over peatlands. 

Last updated: 12.04.2024