Mining law and mineral extraction

German mining law splits every project into two stages, and the first word is a trap. In ordinary German aufsuchen means to go and see someone or somewhere: einen Arzt aufsuchen is to consult a doctor, die Unfallstelle aufsuchen to go to the scene. Nobody is looking for anything. In the Federal Mining Act the noun die Aufsuchung means precisely the search: any activity aimed at discovering a deposit or establishing how far it extends, from a seismic survey to a test borehole. Its partner is die Gewinnung, getting the mineral out, and the law licenses the two separately. Die Erlaubnis covers the search and nothing more; extraction needs die Bewilligung or das Bergwerkseigentum. A company that finds coal under an Erlaubnis has found it, and may not yet dig any of it. So when a notice announces the Aufsuchung von Erdwärme, nobody is paying the heat a visit: somebody is drilling to find out whether it is there.