Queensland Consolidated Acts

MINERAL RESOURCES ACT 1989 - SECT 8

8 Crown’s property in minerals

(1) Gold on or below the surface of land is the property of the Crown.

(2) Coal—

(a) on or below the surface of land that was acquired by the Crown as provided in the Agricultural Lands Special Purchase Act 1901 and subsequently alienated in fee simple by the Crown is the property of the Crown;

(b) on or below the surface of land (other than land referred to in paragraph (a) ) is the property of the Crown except where that land was alienated in fee simple by the Crown before 1 March 1910 and the grant of that land did not contain a reservation to the Crown of the property in that coal.

(3) All minerals (other than coal and gold but including minerals dissolved or suspended in water within or upon the earth’s crust) on or below the surface of land in Queensland other than land alienated in fee simple by the Crown pursuant to—

(a) the Alienation of Crown Lands Act 1860 , section 22 ; or

(b) the Crown Lands Alienation Act 1868 , section 32 ; or

(c) the Mineral Lands Act 1872 , section 21 ;

are the property of the Crown.

(4) Each deed of grant or lease of unallocated State land must contain a reservation of—

(a) minerals on and below the surface of the land; and

(b) the right of access for prospecting, exploring or mining.

(5) Mineral on or below the surface of land that is or becomes road is (to the extent that the mineral, but for this subsection would not be the property of the Crown) on and from the date the land becomes or became road, the property of the Crown.

(6) Where land to a specified depth only is or becomes road, subsection (5) applies in respect only of mineral in or below the surface of that land to the specified depth.

(7) Nothing in subsections (5) and (6) shall be construed as abrogating any right that the owner of land whose land is compulsorily acquired after the commencement of this Act for the purpose of being used as a road may have under any other Act or law to compensation in respect of that acquisition.