Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) A person who
wishes to object to the granting of an application for a mining lease must
lodge a notice of objection.
(1AA) A notice of
objection must be —
(a)
lodged within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner; and
(b)
accompanied by the prescribed fee.
(1A) A person is not
entitled to lodge a notice of objection if the basis for the objection is that
—
(a)
there is no significant mineralisation in, on or under the land to which the
application relates; or
(b) the
mining lease, or activities authorised by it, would affect an offsets project.
(1B) Subsection
(1A)(b) does not apply in respect of an offsets project, or any part of an
offsets project, situated on land held in freehold.
(2) Subject to
subsection (2a), if 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time, or any notice of objection is withdrawn, the mining registrar shall,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 mining lease and sets out the reasons
for that recommendation.
(2a) If the
application for the mining lease is accompanied by the documentation referred
to in section 74(1)(ca)(ii), the mining registrar shall not forward a report
under subsection (2) unless —
(a) the
mining registrar has received a copy of the section 74A report in relation to
the application; and
(b) the
section 74A report states that there is significant mineralisation in, on or
under the land to which the application relates.
(3) The mining
registrar shall —
(a)
recommend the grant of the mining lease if satisfied that the applicant has
complied in all respects with the provisions of this Act; or
(b)
recommend the refusal of the mining lease if not so satisfied.
(4) Subject to
subsection (4a), if 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objection is not withdrawn, the warden shall hear the application for the
mining lease 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.
(4a) If the
application for the mining lease is accompanied by the documentation referred
to in section 74(1)(ca)(ii), the warden shall not hear the application unless
—
(a) the
warden has received a copy of the section 74A report in relation to the
application; and
(b) the
section 74A report states that there is significant mineralisation in, on or
under the land to which the application relates.
(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 mining lease and sets out
the reasons for that recommendation.
(6) On receipt of a
report under subsection (2) or (5), the Minister may, subject to subsection
(7), grant or refuse the mining lease as the Minister thinks fit, and
irrespective of whether —
(a) the
report recommends the grant or refusal of the mining lease; and
(b) the
applicant has or has not complied in all respects with the provisions of this
Act.
(7) In the case of an
application for a mining lease made by the holder of —
(a) a
prospecting licence under section 49; or
(b) an
exploration licence under section 67; or
(c) a
retention licence under section 70L,
the Minister shall,
subject to subsection (8) and the other provisions of this Act, grant to that
holder one or more mining leases —
(d) in
respect of any part or parts of the land the subject of the prospecting
licence, exploration licence or retention licence, as the case requires; and
(e) on
such terms and conditions as the Minister considers reasonable.
(8) In the case of an
application for a mining lease that is accompanied by the documentation
referred to in section 74(1)(ca)(ii), the Minister shall refuse to grant the
mining lease if the section 74A report states that there is no significant
mineralisation in, on or under the land to which the application relates.
(9) Subsection (7)
does not apply to an application for a mining lease if all or part of the land
to which that application relates falls within one or more of the classes of
land referred to in section 24(1) or is in a marine nature reserve, marine
park or marine management area.
(10) In this section
—
section 74A report means the report given to the
Minister under section 74A.
[Section 75 inserted: No. 58 of 1994 s. 29(1);
amended: No. 52 of 1995 s. 29; No. 5 of 1997 s. 41(2); No. 39 of 2004 s. 31
and 63; No. 12 of 2010 s. 32; No. 39 of 2022 s. 12; No. 27 of 2023 s. 8.]