Government legislation ministry rules quarry operators need dual permits for crushing facilities

The government legislation ministry said Tuesday that operators seeking to extract crushed stone from mountainous areas must secure two distinct permits rather than one. The ruling clarifies that while the Forest Land Management Act covers the extraction of soil and stone, the installation of necessary crushing facilities constitutes a separate act requiring approval under the Framework Act on National Land Planning and Utilization.

The decision came in response to an inquiry from Uljin County in North Gyeongsang Province regarding legal requirements for aggregate production sites. Officials determined that crushing facilities, which include crushers, sorters and power equipment fixed to the ground, qualify as artificial structures under land planning laws. Consequently, operators must obtain a development behavior permit for the infrastructure even if they already hold a valid soil and stone extraction permit for the same location.

This requirement applies specifically to extraction activities within conservation management areas, production management areas, agriculture and forestry zones, and natural environment conservation areas. While existing regulations unify the permitting process for land form changes and actual stone extraction under forest laws, this unification does not extend to the installation of structures, which remains a distinct category of development behavior.

Some industry voices had argued that crushing facilities are essential components of stone extraction and should be covered automatically by the primary mining permit. The ministry rejected this view, explaining that current laws list facility requirements merely as qualifications for applicants rather than as legal grounds to install structures on specific sites. Therefore, possessing the capability to operate such machinery does not grant the right to erect them without separate zoning approval.

The ministry noted that although the Framework Act generally requires permits for both structure installation and stone extraction, it explicitly defers only land form changes and extraction in protected forest zones to the Forest Land Management Act, leaving structure installation under its own jurisdiction. This interpretation prevents the expansion of mining permits to cover construction activities that fall outside the scope of forest administration expertise.

The ruling was issued on July 21 as case number 26-0347. The ministry emphasized that its interpretations serve as internal guidelines for consistent administrative execution and do not carry the same binding legal force as a final court judgment.