Unpaid mining licence fee: when the concession weighing on your land goes to auction

Quick answer: a mining concession does not last forever simply because it is registered: it stays alive by paying the annual mining licence fee (patente minera), which falls due in March. If the holder stops paying it, the Treasury sends the list to the court and the concession is put up for public auction under article 146 and following of the Mining Code. For the landowner this matters for two reasons: the concession weighing on their property may be falling away without them knowing it, and anyone can bid at that auction, including the landowner.

There is a very widespread idea among rural owners, and it is false: that a mining concession registered over the property is a permanent sentence. It is not. The Chilean system subjects the concession to an annual payment obligation, and failure to comply has a concrete consequence that is processed in the courts.

Knowing that mechanism changes the landowner's position. They stop being a spectator who can only resign themselves and gain useful information to negotiate, to buy, or simply to know how real the threat hanging over them is.

This concession is not the only obstacle peculiar to the north. Alongside it are the agricultural communities of the Norte Chico and indigenous lands, whose sale to a third party is void. We go through the legal structures that make buying land in the north different in the guide on buying land in northern Chile.

The amparo system: the concession is kept alive by paying

The Mining Code organises the life of the concession around what is called amparo, the system that keeps a mining concession alive by paying the annual fee. The concession is held in amparo, that is to say preserved, by paying an annual licence fee that is paid in during the month of March each year. You do not have to work the mine to keep it: paying is enough. And conversely, having worked it is not enough either if the licence fee was left unpaid.

That design explains a phenomenon anyone can observe by looking at the mining cadastre: enormous areas of the country are covered by concessions nobody works. They are applied for, registered and kept alive by paying, sometimes for decades, waiting for the land to be worth more or for a buyer to appear.

How much it costs today to keep a concession

Here is the change that reordered the board. Law 21,420, from 2022, replaced the historic licence fee with a progressive scale based on the age of the exploitation concession, expressed in monthly tax units (UTM) per hectare per year.

The comparison with the previous regime explains the impact. The historic licence fee was 0.1 UTM per hectare for exploitation and 0.02 UTM for exploration. An old concession that used to be kept at almost no cost came to carry an annual burden that multiplies with the years.

The law provides for a reduced licence fee, which brings the figure back to those 0.1 and 0.02 UTM per hectare, but it requires proving something: actual mining work, entry into the Environmental Impact Assessment System, or the processing of permits under the Mining Safety Regulations. Many holders let the deadline to request it pass and were left carrying the full scale.

Then came an adjustment. Law 21,649, in force since January 2024, protected holders with less than 500 hectares who prove mining activity at least once every five years. It was estimated that around 7,100 small miners were covered, close to six percent of the country's total mining claims. The same law put an end to the perpetuity of exploration concessions.

The practical consequence, for anyone with a concession over their land, is that the cost of keeping it stopped being symbolic. A speculative concession thirty years old covering several hectares now costs real money every March, and that is exactly the kind of concession that ends up falling.

What happens when it is not paid: the auction

Non payment does not automatically extinguish the concession. What is triggered is a judicial procedure, governed by article 146 and following of the Mining Code, which case law has described as a genuine abbreviated enforcement proceeding.

Why this matters to the landowner

An owner who discovers a concession registered over their property usually asks a single question: whether they can enter or not. But before that one there is a more useful question, and that is what state the concession is in.

• An unpaid concession is a weak concession. If the holder has gone years without paying the licence fee, the negotiating position changes completely. Facing a concession holder who keeps everything up to date is not the same as facing one who is one auction away from losing the right.
• The auction is public. Anyone can bid at the auction, and that includes the landowner. For an owner who wants to clear their property of mining encumbrances, acquiring the concession that weighs on their own land is a concrete possibility, not a hypothesis.
• It changes the equation of a purchase. If you are buying rural land and a concession appears over it, the state of the licence fee is part of what has to be reviewed, together with the rest of the background in the title study. A concession that is in force and up to date is not worth the same, in terms of risk, as one that has lapsed for non payment.
• It is not to be confused with aggregates. If what is on the land is sand, gravel or construction stone, no concession applies: those materials are not mineral substances that can be granted in concession and they belong to the landowner, as we explain in the article on the sand and gravel on your land.
• The concession does not authorise entry. To occupy the land it is necessary to establish mining easements, which are agreed with the owner or set by a judge, with compensation involved.

What is coming: the reform of the amparo system

On 18 May 2026 a bill entered the Chamber of Deputies, bill number 18.259-08, which once again amends the Mining Code and Laws 21,420 and 21,649 on the amparo system. The Chamber has already sent it to the Senate, and the Senate Mining and Energy Committee approved it in general on 8 September 2026, with four votes in favour and one abstention. It is not law yet.

If the bill advances, the cost of keeping old concessions would drop significantly, and with that the pressure that is today pushing many holders into lapse would ease. It is a relevant fact for anyone calculating whether it is worth waiting for an auction: the window in which more concessions fall could close.

Frequently asked questions

When is the mining licence fee paid and what happens if it is not paid?

The licence fee is annual and is paid in during the month of March. If it is not paid, the concession does not lapse on its own: the Treasury adds it to a list that it sends to the court, and there the procedure under article 146 and following of the Mining Code begins, ending in the public auction of the concession.

Can I buy at auction the concession that sits over my land?

The auction is public, so any interested party can bid and there is no prohibition excluding the landowner. For an owner who wants to clear their property, that is a concrete route. What has to be clear before bidding is that the successful bidder takes on the licence fees owed, so the hammer price does not represent the total cost.

How do I know whether the concession over my land is up to date?

The location and identification of concessions are checked in the mining cadastre, which shows which concessions cover a given area and who appears as the holder. With that information you then review the state of the licence fees and the registration situation at the relevant Mining Registrar (Conservador de Minas), which is a register separate from the real estate one.

Does having a concession over my land mean it is going to be mined?

Not necessarily, and in fact most of the concessions in force in Chile are not worked. Many are kept for speculative purposes. The existence of the concession does not by itself authorise entry onto the property: occupying the land requires establishing mining easements, which are agreed with the owner or set by a judge, with compensation. They are different from the right of way easement between neighbouring properties, which has its own regime.

Does the licence fee scale also apply to exploration concessions?

The progressive scale of Law 21,420 was structured for exploitation concessions. Exploration historically had a licence fee of 0.02 UTM per hectare, a value that is kept as the reduced licence fee when the proof requirements are met. In addition, Law 21,649 put an end to the perpetuity of exploration concessions.

Can the holder avoid the auction by paying?

The procedure is a collection action and it is pursued against the concession, so bringing the payment up to date is the natural way to stop it. Since it is a court case with deadlines and publications, the moment at which payment is made and the state of the case file determine the outcome, and that is why it is worth reviewing the case before assuming anything.

I bought the land without knowing it had a concession over it. Can I claim against the seller?

It depends on what was declared in the deed and on whether the concession appeared in the background documents at the time of purchase. It is a discussion about warranty against eviction or about defects of consent depending on the case, and it is resolved with the transaction documents in front of you. What avoids it completely is checking the mining cadastre before signing.

If the concession is auctioned, does the problem disappear?

Not necessarily. The concession is not extinguished by the auction: it changes holder. For the landowner that may be better or worse, depending on who acquires it. Only if the auction is left without bidders on the terms the Code provides is the concession extinguished, and that is why it is worth following the case and not just finding out the result.

Are mining easements paid for?

Yes. Occupation of the land in order to work the concession is done through easements that are agreed with the owner or set by a judge, with compensation. Coming to that negotiation knowing what state the concession holder's licence fee is in changes the conversation considerably.

How we handle it

We review which concessions actually cover the property, what state their licence fees are in and what registrations they have at the Mining Registrar, and with that we define the real scenario: whether it is appropriate to negotiate an easement, whether it is worth waiting for an auction, or whether the threat is simply smaller than it seemed.

We have our own team of lawyers, surveyors and architects, so we can review in a single process the mining situation of the property and, if you also need to put the rest of your title in order, move towards a title regularisation or towards the subdivision of the property.

An owner who finds out that their land is covered by a mining concession usually reacts in one of two equally bad ways: resigning themselves, thinking there is nothing to be done, or panicking, assuming the machinery will arrive tomorrow. Both start from the same mistake, which is treating the concession as an immovable fact.

Send us the property tax roll number or the details of the concession that appears on your current certificate of title registration, and we will tell you what state the licence fee is in and what options you have from there.