Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) Subject to
section 111A, where more than one application is received for a mining
tenement (other than a miscellaneous licence) in respect of the same land or
any part thereof, the applicant who first complies with the initial
requirement in relation to his application has, subject to this Act, the right
in priority over every other applicant to have granted to him in respect of
that land or part the mining tenement to which his application relates.
(2) In subsection (3)
applicant means an applicant for a prospecting licence, exploration licence,
mining lease or general purpose lease.
(3) Where in respect
of any land the warden is satisfied that 2 or more applicants complied with
the initial requirement in relation to their applications at the same time or
within a prescribed period, priority shall, unless written agreement is
concluded by the applicants and lodged in the prescribed manner and within the
prescribed time, be determined by ballot conducted by the warden on a date to
be determined by the warden and notified to the applicants.
(3a) Each ballot under
subsection (3) is to be conducted in public.
(4) In this section a
reference to compliance with the initial requirement in relation to an
application is a reference —
(a) in
the case of an application for an exploration licence, to lodging that
application in the prescribed manner;
(b) in
the case of an application for a prospecting licence, mining lease or general
purpose lease —
(i)
unless subparagraph (ia), (ii) or (iii) applies, to
marking out the land concerned in the prescribed manner;
(ia)
where the land concerned is land to which section 65(6) applies, lodging that
application in the prescribed manner;
(ii)
where the land concerned is wholly covered by the sea or
the waters of any lake, pond, river or stream, to lodging that application in
the prescribed manner;
(iii)
where the land concerned is partly covered by the sea or
the waters of any lake, pond, river or stream, to marking out in the
prescribed manner so much of that land as is not so covered.
(5) If the warden is
satisfied that 2 or more applications for a mining tenement have been lodged
by or on behalf of the same party for the purpose of affecting the result of a
ballot to be conducted under subsection (3), the warden may exclude all but
one of those applications from the ballot.
(6) For the purposes
of subsection (5) an application for a mining tenement is to be taken to have
been lodged by or on behalf of a party if it is lodged by or on behalf of a
person who is related to that party.
[Section 105A inserted: No. 69 of 1981 s. 24;
amended: No. 100 of 1985 s. 80; No. 1 of 1986 s. 6; No. 22 of 1990 s. 34; No.
37 of 1993 s. 17 and 26; No. 58 of 1994 s. 42; No. 15 of 2002 s. 26; No. 39 of
2004 s. 67 and 95; No. 12 of 2010 s. 36.]