The mining concessionaire will be entitled to request the extension of exploration mining concessions for an additional period of up to 4 years, provided that the requirements established by law are met.
The holder of an exploration mining concession shall be prohibited from acquiring, by himself or through an intermediary, a new exploration mining concession overlapping, in whole or in part, the area covered by the previous exploration mining concession, from the date of submission of his application until one year after the expiry of the concession.
As a new penalty for contravention of this prohibition, the offender holder shall loss the preference to constitute an exploitation mining concession in the area covered by the exploration mining concession.
A third party who denounces a contravention of the aforementioned prohibition and obtains a judgment declaring it to be so, may file a petition for all or part of the land covered by the denounced application, taking advantage of the date of filing of said application, if the other requirements established by law for this purpose are met.
