PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian government has introduced new rules to fast-track mining projects to production.

Mining companies were previously required to have all land access licences granted prior to lodging their environmental applications for approval, meaning that infrastructure construction could not commence until land access was approved along the entire corridor.

The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety has now implemented new changes to enable mining companies to commence construction in a staged manner along the corridors, and environmental assessments will be conducted while licences are still pending.

These changes will not affect environmental, safety or heritage standards, and construction cannot occur until the mining proposal is assessed and environmentally acceptable.

“The new rules have the potential to cut months off the construction timeline for companies, which is important for creating jobs for Western Australians and growing our economy,” said Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston.

"Environmental assessments of the whole mining infrastructure corridor will now only have to be conducted once, at the start of the project, rather than on multiple occasions.

"The government has listened to industry and investigated ways to cut red tape. These new arrangements are already being utilised by industry and are resulting in significant savings in construction schedules."

Iron-ore ore miner Fortescue has already implemented these changes at its Eliwana iron-ore mine, which celebrated first ore this week. The changes helped Fortescue fast-track its project to production, removed application duplication and reduced the wait time for various licences to be granted, Johnston said.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) said on Friday that the new rules for infrastructure development were an important administrative reform that would save time and bring all projects closer to development.

“This is an important amendment that will bring projects closer to development and bring forward investment in Western Australia,” said Amec CEO Warren Pearce.

“Many mining projects rely on long infrastructure corridors to ensure their product can reach port and securing all land access for those areas can take a long time, which leads to delay.

“Infrastructure is critical to the development of a mine, to ensure the company has a point of egress for their product and can meet their electricity, gas or water requirements.

“Western Australia is one of the biggest mining jurisdictions in the world. We have some of the longest mining roads, heavy rail, and longest gas pipelines in the world. It can take a long time to get access agreements across such distances,” said Pearce.

“The administrative amendments announced are common sense and will make it easier to do business in Western Australia. The changes will not reduce any of Western Australia’s rigorous regulatory standards but will cut down on the timeframes to develop projects, making WA a more attractive jurisdiction for investment.

“This is an example of a small change to administrative practice that will lead to significant time benefits for companies. As a result of this tweak, Western Australia will benefit from mining projects being built sooner, creating more jobs and growth earlier,” said Pearce.