MINERALS
The Committee on the agro-industrial policy of the Federation Council welcomed the proposal of the Yakut deputies mammoth tusks equate to mineral resources. At present, a very profitable commercial production of mammoth bones is not regulated by normative acts. In fact, it is a shadow business, which all turned a blind eye.
The authorities of Yakutia has repeatedly taken steps to ensure that the fishery to enter into the legal mainstream. However, these attempts were unsuccessful, according to the Russian newspaper ``.
Yakut deputies hope that the next bill will be prepared to wait for their different fate. It it is a question of amendments to the Federal Law #39;On Subsoil `. In particular, the area containing the mammoth tusks, asked to be referred to subsoil areas of local importance.
The Federation Council document presented by the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Land Relations, Natural Resources and Ecology of the parliament of Yakutia Athanasius Sofroneev. He spoke in detail about the situation that has developed around the production of tusks.
The deputy noted that the tusks of a mammoth common in the Arctic territory of the Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets autonomous district, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan region, Chukotka and Yakutia. Experts estimate that more than 80 percent of these resources are concentrated in Yakutia.
A similar conclusion was made on the basis of specific research. The fact is that at the end of the last century in Yakutia were held the first and only national and international practices Exploration on fossil mammoth bone. According to the material received, the potential resources of mammoth tusks in Severoyakutskoy provinces can be up to 450 thousand tons.
At current prices, it is - more than half a billion dollars.
- Fishing for mammoth tusks after long neglect came to life in the 90-ies of XX century and was characterized by the complete absence of legal regulation at the federal level and national - said Athanasius Sofroneev. - At the initiative of the President of Yakutia Vyacheslav Shtyrov in 2005 was passed Republic Act `Regulation of use and disposal of special natural resource - fossil remains of the mammoth fauna #39;. This allowed legalize fishing, increase in crude production, create up to 30 small businesses and up to 200 additional jobs in the arctic regions of Yakutia. Increased severance tax revenues to the budgets of all levels, and use of the resources of fossil mammoth ivory has been ordered and close as possible to the rules of subsoil use.
However, as noted by the deputy, in 2007, on the basis of the protest action of the local prosecutor#39;s office of the law was suspended. Meanwhile, mammoth ivory continues to enjoy strong demand in the domestic and foreign markets as a raw material in the bone-cutting and jewelry manufacturing. At foreign auctions cost of collection material reaches $ 1,200 per kilogram.
Athanasius Sofroneev stressed that mammoth tusks are not included in the `National Classification of mineral resources and groundwater #39;, in connection with what kind of minerals are not. And the federal law #39;On Subsoil `there are no rules governing the production of ivory as a mineral resource. It is only on the collection of specimens from the collection of paleontological ``. However, in 2011, according to statistics, the tusks were sold more than $ 11.2 million rubles. This is the only official data that takes into account only the collection of the collection of raw materials on the basis of licenses issued.
How many tusks are exported `blind #39;, nobody knows.
- Thus, to date, under the guise of collecting fossil mammoth bones as paleontology, collection of material is a real commercial production of raw materials, - concluded the deputy.
The authorities of Yakutia offer two ways to regulate the fishery. The first - to amend the Law on Subsoil ``, securing the authority to order such sites for the subject of the Russian Federation.
- The second way - the order of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation and the Government of Yakutia, mammoth tusks attributed to common minerals - said Athanasius Sofroneev.
In this case, both methods involve the inclusion of mammoth tusks as bioliths in the National Classification of mineral resources and groundwater. While valuable raw materials to minerals not classified.
