JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian government will amend its mining legislation to validate granted tenements and ensure mining companies have security of title.
The announcement, by Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston on Tuesday, follows an August High Court ruling, which found that the process of granting mining lease applications was flawed.
Andrew Forrest turned to the High Court to prevent two junior sand miners from gaining access to his family pastoral property, despite the companies having been granted mining licences. The licences were granted before the juniors lodged some key reports with the Department of Mines and Petroleum, which is currently standard procedure in Western Australia. Forrest successfully argued that the key reports, including a mineralisation report, were required to be filed at the time of lodgment.
Johnson explained that the Mining Act of 1978 required a mining lease application to be accompanied by either a mining proposal or a mineralisation report. Amending the legislation would validate those mining leases where the mineralisation report was not submitted concurrently with the mining application.
"Not taking action to validate mining tenements could have significant implications for the state as an investment destination,” Johnston said.
The government will now draft and introduce the Mining Legislation Amendment and Validation Bill 2017 to validate mining tenements.
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia commented that the amendments would provide much needed certainty for mining projects.
“Security of tenure is a fundamental principle of the Mining Act and we are grateful that the government has moved quickly to address the issue to protect mining tenements,” said CME CEO Reg Howard-Smith.