Western Australian Current Acts

MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 59

59 .         Determination of application for exploration licence

        (1)         A person who wishes to object to the granting of an application for an exploration licence must lodge a notice of objection.

        (1A)         A notice of objection must be —

            (a)         lodged within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner; and

            (b)         accompanied by the prescribed fee.

        (1B)         A person is not entitled to lodge a notice of objection if the basis for the objection is that the exploration licence, or activities authorised by it, would affect an offsets project.

        (1C)         Subsection (1B) does not apply in respect of an offsets project, or any part of an offsets project, situated on land held in freehold.

        (2)         Where no notice of objection is lodged within the prescribed time, or any notice of objection is withdrawn, the mining registrar shall, unless subsection (4)(b) applies, forward to the Minister a report which recommends the grant or refusal of the exploration licence and sets out the reasons for that recommendation.

        (3)         The mining registrar shall —

            (a)         recommend the grant of the exploration licence if satisfied that the applicant has complied in all respects with the provisions of this Act; or

            (b)         recommend the refusal of the exploration licence if not so satisfied.

        (4)         Where a notice of objection —

            (a)         is lodged within the prescribed time; or

            (b)         is not lodged within the prescribed time but is lodged before the mining registrar has forwarded a report to the Minister under subsection (2) and the warden is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for late lodgment,

                and the notice of objection is not withdrawn, the warden shall hear the application for the exploration licence on a day appointed by the warden and may give any person who has lodged such a notice of objection an opportunity to be heard.

        (5)         The warden shall as soon as practicable after the hearing of the application forward to the Minister for the Minister’s consideration —

            (a)         the notes of evidence; and

            (b)         any maps or other documents referred to in the notes of evidence; and

            (c)         a report which recommends the grant or refusal of the exploration licence and sets out the reasons for that recommendation.

        (6)         On receipt of a report under subsection (2) or (5), the Minister may grant or refuse the exploration licence as the Minister thinks fit, and irrespective of whether —

            (a)         the report recommends the grant or refusal of the exploration licence; and

            (b)         the applicant has or has not complied in all respects with the provisions of this Act.

        [Section 59 inserted: No. 58 of 1994 s. 15(1); amended: No. 39 of 2004 s. 59; No. 12 of 2010 s. 22; No. 39 of 2022 s. 9; No. 27 of 2023 s. 6.]