Survey (mensura): what it is, when it is requested and how it is done

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When it is requested

The applicant must request the survey within the window running from day 91 to day 120, inclusive, counted from the filing of the manifestación with the court (Mining Code, art. 59; Regulations, art. 23). These deadlines have applied since January 1, 2024; manifestaciones that were already pending follow the previous rules, as explained in Pedimento and manifestación. The request may cover all or part of the ground in the manifestación, never ground outside it, and must:

• state the UTM coordinates of each vertex of the perimeter and tie one of them, by bearing and distance, to the point of interest;
• designate the engineer or surveyor (perito) who will carry out the survey, state the length and width of each pertenencia and, where possible, the neighboring pertenencias and their owners;
• attach proof of payment of the application fee and of the prorated annual fee (patente proporcional), a certified copy of the registry entry of the manifestación, the issue of the Official Mining Bulletin (Boletín Oficial de Minería) in which it was published and a plan (art. 59).

This request starts the maintenance (amparo) obligation (art. 144; see Annual mining fee). In proceedings after the manifestación, coordinates are deemed to refer to PSAD56, or to SAD69 if the point of interest lies south of latitude 43°30′ South, and the datum and UTM zone must be stated on the plans and in the survey record (Regulations, art. 16; see Coordinate system).

Publication and oppositions

If the request is in order, the judge orders it to be published; the publication covers the request and the ruling, and must be made only once in the Official Mining Bulletin within thirty days of that ruling. If a requirement whose omission or delay entails lapse is missing, the judge rejects the request outright and orders the registry entry of the manifestación to be canceled (art. 60).

Within the thirty days following publication, an opposition may be filed, based on an earlier-dated pedimento or exploration concession, or on a manifestación that is earlier or deemed earlier (art. 61). Oppositions are heard under the summary procedure (art. 68), and anyone who does not oppose in time may lose their preference or their rights over the ground on which the other party’s pertenencia is ultimately constituted (art. 65).

How it is carried out

The survey is carried out once the opposition period has expired or, if there was an opposition, once the judgment rejecting it or determining the location of the pertenencias of the party who obtained the right to survey has become final. It is performed by a civil mining engineer chosen by the interested party or by a surveyor (perito) from the list that SERNAGEOMIN designates each year by resolution, with the prior approval of the Ministry of Mining, and no arguments may be raised during the survey itself (art. 71).

• On the ground: the vertices are located according to the coordinates in the request, oriented to the local UTM meridian, and solidly built, clearly visible monuments are placed, at least at each vertex (arts. 72 and 74). The Regulations also require a survey monument (hito de mensura, HM) tied to the National Geodetic Network, to vertices approved by SERNAGEOMIN or to monuments of other constituted pertenencias (Regulations, arts. 28 to 32). If GPS equipment is used, SERNAGEOMIN’s general instructions must be applied (Regulations, arts. 33 and 33 bis).
• Limits: the survey may cover all or part of the ground requested, reducing the number or area of the pertenencias, but never ground outside it, and the engineer or surveyor may not include pertenencias in force, subject to criminal penalties (art. 73).
• Survey record and plan: the engineer or surveyor draws up a record (acta) narrating how the coordinates of the vertices were determined and prepares a plan in triplicate (arts. 75 and 77). The holder must submit them to the court within ten months of the filing of the manifestación, with the exception established in that same article for anyone who is or has been a party to opposition proceedings based on Article 61 (art. 78). The survey plan must state, among other details, the court and Case No. of the case file and the number of the pertenencia in the National Roll of Mining Concessions (Regulations, art. 38 No. 14).

SERNAGEOMIN report and judgment

The judge sends the survey record and plan to SERNAGEOMIN, which reports within sixty days on whether the shape, dimensions and orientation of each pertenencia comply with the law, whether they lie within the ground covered by the manifestación and the ground for which the survey was requested, and whether the monuments were correctly placed (art. 79). If there are no observations, the judge issues the constitutive judgment (art. 81). If the report objects to technical aspects, the judge orders the interested party to be given notice of it; the interested party has eight days to contest the objections or sixty days to cure them, counted from the date of that ruling and not from the date of the report. For well-founded reasons and following a report from SERNAGEOMIN, the judge may extend the period to cure once only, for up to another sixty days. These are strict deadlines (plazos fatales) (art. 82). If SERNAGEOMIN reports that the survey covers pertenencias already constituted, an extract is published within thirty days, and their holders, once personally served, may file an opposition within sixty days (arts. 80, 83 and 84).

The judgment approves the survey record and plan, and orders its extract to be published and the judgment to be recorded with the Mining Registrar (Conservador de Minas), together with the survey record (arts. 87, 89 and 90). For the purposes of nullity due to overlap between surveys, the law conclusively presumes that each survey was carried out on the date its request was filed (arts. 72 and 95).

How PMD helps you

• Bulletins: the “Survey requests (exploitation)” category brings together the publications for each date, with the official document and the location on the map.
• Map: the “Survey requested” filter shows manifestaciones for which a survey has been requested, and the “HM tie networks” layer shows survey monuments, their ties and the details of each pertenencia.
• Monitoring: alerts you to the start and end of the period for requesting the survey, to the approaching end of the survey deadline and to new survey requests related to your favorite concessions or areas of interest.

The representation of a concession on the map is a guide for orientation: it does not replace the survey or, by itself, establish the legal location of its boundaries.

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Main legal framework: the Mining Code, Law No. 18,248, as amended by Laws No. 21,420 and No. 21,649, and its Regulations, Supreme Decree No. 1 of 1986, as amended by Supreme Decree No. 10 of 2024, according to the text published by the Library of the National Congress of Chile. Review: October 23, 2026.