Commonwealth Numbered Acts

ABORIGINAL LAND RIGHTS (NORTHERN TERRITORY) ACT 1976 No. 191 of 1976 - SECT 40

PART IV-MINING INTERESTS AND MINING OPERATIONS
40. (1) A mining interest in respect of Aboriginal land shall not be granted
unless-

   (a)  both the Minister and the Land Council for the area in which the land
        is situated have consented, in writing, to the making of the grant; or

   (b)  the Governor-General has, by Proclamation, declared that the national
        interest requires that the grant be made.

(2) Where the Minister and a Land Council, after considering proposals placed
before them by an applicant for an exploration licence in respect of
Aboriginal land, being proposals for the exploration for minerals on that land
and the recovery of any minerals found as a result of the exploration, have,
for the purposes of sub-section (1), consented to the grant of that licence,
that sub-section does not apply to a later grant to that person of other
mining interests in respect of that land that are in substantial accordance
with those proposals.

(3) Where the holder of an exploration licence in respect of land applied,
before 4 June 1976, for another mining interest in respect of that land,
sub-section (1) does not apply to the grant of that other interest.

(4) Where, before 4 June 1976, a person was issued with a permit in respect of
land under the Petroleum (Prospecting and Mining) Ordinance 1954 of the
Northern Territory, as amended from time to time, sub- section (1) does not
apply to the grant to that person of a lease under that Ordinance in respect
of that land.

(5) Sub-section (1) does not apply to the grant to a person of a lease in
respect of Aboriginal land under the Petroleum (Prospecting and Mining)
Ordinance 1954 of the Northern Territory, as amended from time to time, if
that person applied for the grant of such a lease in respect of that land
before the land became Aboriginal land.

(6) If the land, or part of the land, described in Schedule 2, being the land
known as the Ranger Project Area, becomes Aboriginal land, sub-section (1)
does not apply in relation to that land, or that part of the land.

(7) Sub-section (1) does not apply in relation to the land described in
Schedule 3, being the land known as the Eastern Areas on Groote Eylandt.