Federal Mining Act (BBerG)

The Federal Mining Act sets out efficient licensing and approval procedures. It is the basis for the extraction of raw materials and the application of other regulated laws like, e.g., environmental law. 
It also defines ownership rights in Part VII and how they can be limited if there is a public interest in a raw material project. The Federal Mining Act draws a distinction between so-called “bergfreie” (the economically most important mineable resources like, e.g., coal, gas, oil and geothermal energy) and “grundeigene” mineable resources. Bergfrei means that the property right of the piece of land does not include the proprietary right concerning the listed mineable resources. 
Therefore, the right to explore and extract those mineable resources firstly has to be transferred through a kind of licence by the local mining authority  before operating licences for the project can be granted in a second stage. 

Want to know more about this policy ? Learn more (German)