After the last update of the Instructions for Travel Permits, issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Security on June 12, 2020, for the operation of “public utility services” the so-called Single Collective Permit (“PUC)” was incorporated, which is “that requested by a company or institution of an essential sector, so that its workers can personally attend at their workplaces and/or circulate to fulfill their duties.”

In number 1.s of title VI., mining companies, their suppliers and contractors are considered part of those industries that provide basic services of public utility or with high degree of social value, which cannot be interrupted without causing great alteration of the operation of the country. Consequently, on June 12, 2020, the Ministry of Mining published a statement regarding the request of travel authorizations, to provide more details on the application of the PUC within the mining industry.

• This new permit replaces those authorizations the relevant authority was granting to date by means of resolutions. will remain in force
• The PUC allows mining companies, their contractors and suppliers to separately apply for and process authorizations for their workers. From June 25, 2020 onwards, workers will only be able to travel carrying the PUC and their ID cards.
• It must be requested through the Virtual Police Station website, in accordance with the following requirements:
  • Each application must contain the basic information of the company (such as the company’s name and the ID card number of its tax representative);
  • The list of workers to be authorized (up to 500 workers for each request) with their respective email addresses, must appear on a form is available at the same Virtual Police Station site within the Single Collective Permit section. Only applications in which all fields of the said form have been correctly filled out will be processed.
• The list of workers will be checked against the active COVID-19 records maintained by the Health Authority, in order to prevent workers who are registered as active cases from accessing the permit.
• The worker will receive the travel authorization in his/her email with the identification of name and time to do his/her job.
• The PUC will be valid for 7 days, it can be requested up to a maximum of 3 days and a minimum of 3 hours in advance. This seeks that companies can schedule applications and organize their respective work shifts.
• Companies will be supervised by the Regional Ministerial Secretaries of Mining, to whom the information regarding the staffing that is being used and the criteria used to reduce the number of people who provide services in person must be delivered.