On March 1, 2023, the Government of Alberta proclaimed parts of the Mineral Resource Development Act. The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has the authority to regulate the safe, efficient, and responsible development of Alberta’s brine-hosted mineral resources under the act.
Today we released Directive 090: Brine-Hosted Mineral Resource Development to complete the regulatory framework for brine-hosted mineral resource development. Directive 090 will come into effect once the Brine-Hosted Mineral Resource Development Rules (BMR) are in effect. The BMR will be available at the Alberta King’s Printer. The BMR and Directive 090 set out the requirements that industry must follow throughout the life cycle of a brine-hosted mineral resource development; they introduce processes and requirements unique to developing brine-hosted mineral resources while incorporating applicable oil and gas regulatory instruments.
Other changes to the regulatory framework for brine-hosted mineral resource development that will come into effect with the BMR include the following:
- Directive 056: Energy Development Applications and Schedules has been updated to include well, facility, and pipeline licensing requirements for brine-hosted mineral resource development.
- In the Oil and Gas Conservation Rules (OGCR), the definition of oilfield waste has been updated to include waste from mineral resource development. Also, new provisions have been added to the OGCR and the Geothermal Resource Development Rules that require an application for amendment when a licensee intends to convert a well licensed under the Oil and Gas Conservation Act or Geothermal Resource Development Act to a mineral resource well.
In addition to these revisions, another version of Directive 056 will be released on March 16 for OneStop application submission requirements for geothermal and brine-hosted mineral resources. Also, on March 16, a revised edition of Manual 012: Energy Development Applications will be released.
On September 20, 2022, we released a draft of the brine-hosted mineral resource directive for public review and comment until October 31, 2022 (see Bulletin 2022-28). A summary of the feedback, including our responses, is available on the directive's webpage.
Directive 090 and the revised edition of Directive 056 are available on our website at www.aer.ca > Regulating Development > Rules and Directives > Directives. If you have questions, contact our Customer Contact Centre by phone at 1-855-297-8311 or by email at inquiries@aer.ca.
