A proposed regulation for the Declaration of Public Utility (DUP), the document used in mineral easement and expropriation proceedings, is open for public consultation until November 5. This is Public Consultation No. 03/2026, on Draft ANM Resolution No. 20348109, dated July 14, 2026.
The DUP is already recognized by the Judiciary, on the basis of art. 2, item XXI, of Law No. 13,575/2017, art. 41 of Decree No. 9,406/2018, and art. 5, item XXIV, of the Federal Constitution. It is used across the sector to support requests for easement or expropriation whenever a mining project needs a third party’s land for support structures, such as dams, transmission lines, or access roads.
What’s new is the regulation, for the first time, of the criteria and procedure for issuing it, and the formal replacement of the current Technical Easement Report with the DUP.
The proposal separates the two instruments with a practical distinction: a mineral easement applies when the restriction on the property is partial, such as a transmission line or a pipeline running through the area; expropriation applies when full, exclusive use is required, such as for a tailings dam.
Among the changes proposed to current practice:
- prior on-site inspection would no longer be mandatory;
- the grounds listed in the Mining Code for obtaining a DUP would no longer be exhaustive, allowing the declaration to be granted in justified cases not expressly provided for;
- a 5-year validity period for the document;
- the request would no longer depend on a prior attempt at agreement with the property owner as a condition for filing;
- a 60-day deadline to notify the ANM once the easement or expropriation has actually been established;
- a list of minimum required documentation, objective analysis criteria, and grounds for denial.
None of this is in force yet. The proposal remains open for public consultation, with contributions accepted through November 5, 2026, via the Brasil Participativo platform, and may still change before the final version is published.
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