485 Mining Sites To Be Tendered By MAPEG

The General Directorate of Mining and Petroleum Affairs ("MAPEG") under the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has announced the tender of 485 mining sites pursuant to Article 30 of Mining Law No. 3213. The tender notice was published in the Official Gazette dated February 7, 2026, issue no. 33161, and the tender specifications along with detailed site information have been separately published on MAPEG's official website.

Mining Groups Subject to Tender

The distribution of the 485 mining sites subject to tender is as follows:

The sites are located across 51 provinces throughout Türkiye, with particular concentration in Balıkesir, Antalya, Gümüşhane, Artvin, Bitlis, Kayseri, Sivas, Muğla and Kütahya. Other provinces include Adana, Adıyaman, Afyonkarahisar, Ağrı, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Aydın, Batman, Bilecik, Bingöl, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Çanakkale, Çorum, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Edirne, Elazığ, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Hakkari, Hatay, Iğdır, Isparta, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Karabük, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kilis, Kırklareli, Kırşehir, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mersin, Muş, Niğde, Ordu, Rize, Samsun, Siirt, Sinop, Şırnak, Tekirdağ, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Uşak, Van and Yozgat.

Tender Process and Timeline

Tender Dates

The tenders will commence on March 25, 2026 and will be conducted in phases until April 10, 2026. The designated tender date for each site is set out in the site list published by MAPEG (Annex 4 to the Tender Specifications for the 317th Tender Group).

Submission Procedure

Tenderers are required to submit the Tender Submission File in person to the Tender Commission between 09:00 and 09:30 on the relevant tender date at the Atilla Şinasi Özdemir Conference Hall located in the MAPEG headquarters building (Mevlâna Boulevard No: 76, Beştepe, Yenimahalle/Ankara). Submissions made by post or by any other means will not be accepted.

Financial Obligations

The key financial obligations applicable to tender participation and the licensing process are summarised below:

Payments may be made through Vakıfbank, Halkbank, Ziraat Bankası, Vakıf Katılım, Ziraat Katılım and Emlak Katılım banks.

Tender Procedure

The tenders will be conducted through a sealed offer and open auction procedure:

• Sealed Offer Phase: All valid sealed tenders are opened and their arithmetic average is Tenderers whose sealed offer price is equal to or above 50% of such

average qualify to participate in the open auction.

• Open Auction Phase: The opening bid is submitted by the tenderer who submitted the lowest valid sealed offer in the sealed offer Increments may not be less than 5% and may not be more than 20% of the preceding bid.

Post-Tender Process

The successful tenderer is granted ten (10) business days to pay the tender price. If the successful tenderer fails to fulfil its obligations, the second-ranked and subsequent tenderers are granted five (5) business days each to complete the payment and other steps, in accordance with the tender rules. Following payment of the tender price, tenderers are granted two (2) months to fulfil the other licensing obligations set out in Mining Law No. 3213 and the Mining Regulation. An operating licence will be issued to tenderers who fully satisfy the relevant obligations.

Key Considerations

Tenderers considering participation should take into account several important matters in relation to the tendered sites.

First, amaterialportionofthesitesmayfallwithin distance/corridor regimes requiring permits and/or favourable opinions from various public authorities and institutions. In this context, the permit and/or approval processes may need to be carried out with the relevant administrations, in particular the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, the General Directorate of Forestry, the General Directorate of Highways, Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate

Change. Accordingly, the ability to commence mining operations in practice may, on a field- by-field basis, be contingent upon obtaining the permits and/or favourable opinions required under the applicable legislation of the relevant authorities. In addition, certain sites contain existing energy infrastructure such as wind power plants, solar power plants, hydroelectric power plants, natural gas pipelines, oil pipelines, and electricity transmission lines. Where such infrastructure exists, activities must be carried out subject to the necessary permissions to be obtained from the relevant entities.

As expressly stated in the tender specifications, no reserve or grade guarantee is provided for the sites subject to tender. MAPEG bears no responsibility whatsoever regarding the reserve, quality or economic value of any site. Tenderers may not, in any manner and before any authority, allege that the tendered site is

"defective"; conducting any and all inspections, investigations and due diligence regarding the relevant site is entirely the tenderer's responsibility.

Furthermore, certain restrictions apply to tender participation. Natural persons who are not citizens of the Republic of Türkiye, legal entities not established under the laws of the Republic of Türkiye, civil servants and other public officials, and MAPEG personnel may not participate in the tender. In cases where multiple applications are submitted for the same site by the same natural or legal person, or where the same natural person applies both on their own behalf and on behalf of another party, all tenders shall be deemed invalid.

Finally, the Ankara Administrative Courts shall have jurisdiction over the resolution of disputes arising from the tender process or the licence.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.