PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian Mining Rehabilitation Fund (MRF) has delivered tangible results, with the area of mining and exploration land under rehabilitation in the state having increased by 7% in 2014/15.
Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion said over the weekend that the MRF was encouraging early and ongoing rehabilitation of mine sites.
"The annual levy is based on the amount and type of ground disturbance on a mining tenement, so operators reduce their levy payment by rehabilitating early.”
"Early rehabilitation is a good environmental outcome. It means that, in the event a mining operator is unable to fulfil its environmental obligations following mine closure, the state is left with a smaller rehabilitation liability."
Under the MRF, ground disturbance data must be reported every year, with the practice declared compulsory as from 2014, following a year of voluntary participation.
"The second compulsory reporting period for the fund closed on June 30 and, at that time, 98% of reports had been submitted online," the Minister said.
He added that it was pleasing that holders of 99.3% of prospecting licences had submitted data before the deadline.”
Marmion noted that the disturbance data collected through the MRF was important for determining levy payments but also revealed a picture of the mining and exploration footprint in Western Australia under the Mining Act.
“Over time, this data will reveal disturbance and rehabilitation trends, improve transparency and aid in the buying and transfer of liabilities and assets."
The Department of Mines and Petroleum expected to issue 213 infringement notices for not lodging an MRF report for this year, compared with the 1 184 notices issued in 2014.