Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) In this Act,
unless the contrary intention appears —
agricultural used in relation to the purposes for
which land is occupied, includes cropping or pasturing purposes;
burial ground means an area of land reserved or
demarcated exclusively for the purpose of burials;
commencing date means the date of the coming into
operation of the provisions of this Act referred to in section 2(2);
Commonwealth land means —
(a) land
in respect of which the Commonwealth holds a freehold or leasehold interest;
or
(b) land
that is otherwise vested in or held by the Commonwealth or vested in or held
by an officer or person on behalf of the Commonwealth;
Corporations Act means the Corporations Act 2001
of the Commonwealth;
Crown land means all land except —
(a) land
that has been reserved for or dedicated to any public purpose other than
—
(i)
land reserved for mining or commons;
(ii)
land reserved and designated for public utility for any
purpose under the Land Administration Act 1997 ;
(b) land
that has been lawfully granted or contracted to be granted in fee simple by or
on behalf of the Crown;
(c) land
that is subject to any lease granted by or on behalf of the Crown other than
—
(i)
a pastoral lease or a lease otherwise granted for grazing
purposes only; or
(ia) a
diversification lease; or
(ii)
a lease for timber purposes; or
(iii)
a lease of Crown land for the use and benefit of the
Aboriginal inhabitants;
(d) land
that is a townsite within the meaning of the Land Administration Act 1997 ;
dam means any accumulation or storage of water,
whether natural or artificial;
damage , in relation to agricultural land,
includes the disturbance of stock and any proper cost reasonably incurred for
the purpose of rectifying that disturbance;
dealing means a transfer or mortgage of a legal
interest in a mining tenement;
Department means the department of the Public
Service of the State principally assisting the Minister in the administration
of this Act;
designated tenement contact (DTC) , in respect of
a mining tenement, or an application for a mining tenement, means the person
who is, or the persons who are, in accordance with the regulations, the
designated tenement contact for the mining tenement or application;
Director General of Mines means the person for the
time being holding or acting in the office of chief executive officer of the
Department;
Director, Geological Survey means the person for
the time being holding or acting in the office of Director, Geological Survey
in the Department;
diversification lease has the meaning given in the
Land Administration Act 1997 section 92B(1);
expenditure conditions in relation to a mining
tenement means the prescribed conditions applicable to a mining tenement that
require the expenditure of money on or in connection with the mining tenement
or the mining operations carried out thereon or proposed to be so carried out;
fossick means to search for, extract and remove
rock, ore or minerals, other than gold or diamonds, in quantities not
exceeding the prescribed amount and by means not prohibited under the
regulations, as samples or specimens for the purpose of a mineral collection,
lapidary work or a hobby interest;
geological sample includes a drill core;
ground disturbing equipment means —
(a)
mechanical drilling equipment; or
(b) a
backhoe, bulldozer, grader or scraper; or
(c) any
other machinery of a kind prescribed for the purposes of this definition;
identified mineral resource means a deposit of
minerals identified in the prescribed manner;
LAA Minister means the Minister to whom the
administration of the Land Administration Act 1997 is for the time being
committed by the Governor;
land includes water; and also includes —
(a) the
foreshore as defined in section 25(1)(a); and
(b) the
sea bed and subsoil between the mean low water springs level and the inner
limits of the coastal waters of the State as defined in section 16(1) and (2)
of the Offshore Minerals Act 2003 ;
land under cultivation means land being used for
agricultural purposes and includes any land, whether cleared or uncleared,
used by a person for the grazing of stock in the ordinary course of management
of the land of that person where the land so used for grazing forms the whole
or a part of the land owned or occupied by that person;
lapidary work includes the selection, cutting,
polishing, engraving and setting of rock or other minerals;
listed public company means a corporation that is
a listed corporation within the meaning of that expression in the
Corporations Act ;
local government means the local government of the
district in which the matter in relation to which the term is used, arose or
is situated;
machinery includes all mechanical appliances of
whatever kind used or intended to be used for any mining purpose;
marine management area , marine nature reserve
and marine park have the meanings given to them by the
Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 ;
mine , as a noun, means any place in, on or under
which mining operations are carried on;
mine , as a verb, includes any manner or method of
mining operations;
mineral field means a mineral field constituted
under this Act or deemed so to be;
minerals means naturally occurring substances
obtained or obtainable from any land by mining operations carried out on or
under the surface of the land, but does not include —
(a)
soil; or
(b) a
substance the recovery of which is governed by the Petroleum and Geothermal
Energy Resources Act 1967 or the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982 ; or
(ba)
without limiting paragraph (b), geothermal energy resources as defined in the
Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 section 5(1); or
(c) a
meteorite as defined in the Museum Act 1969 ; or
(d) any
of the following substances if it occurs on private land —
(i)
limestone, rock or gravel; or
(ii)
shale, other than oil shale; or
(iii)
sand, other than mineral sand, silica sand or garnet
sand; or
(iv)
clay, other than kaolin, bentonite, attapulgite or
montmorillonite;
miner’s right means a miner’s right
issued under section 40C;
mining includes fossicking, prospecting and
exploring for minerals, and mining operations;
mining operations means any mode or method of
working whereby the earth or any rock structure stone fluid or mineral bearing
substance may be disturbed removed washed sifted crushed leached roasted
distilled evaporated smelted combusted or refined or dealt with for the
purpose of obtaining any mineral or processed mineral resource therefrom
whether it has been previously disturbed or not and includes —
(a) the
removal of overburden by mechanical or other means and the stacking, deposit,
storage and treatment of any substance considered to contain any mineral; and
(b)
operations by means of which salt or other evaporites may be harvested; and
(c)
operations by means of which mineral is recovered from the sea or a natural
water supply; and
(da)
operations by means of which a processed mineral resource is produced and
recovered; and
(d) the
doing of all acts incident or conducive to any such operation or purposes;
mining product means any material won from land by
mining;
mining registrar means a mining registrar
appointed in accordance with this Act or deemed so to be and includes a
reference to the person holding, acting in, or performing the functions of a
prescribed office or position in the Department;
mining tenement means a prospecting licence,
exploration licence, retention licence, mining lease, general purpose lease or
a miscellaneous licence granted or acquired under this Act or by virtue of the
repealed Act; and includes the specified piece of land in respect of which the
mining tenement is so granted or acquired;
occupier in relation to any land includes any
person in actual occupation of the land under any lawful title granted by or
derived from the owner of the land;
offsets project means —
(a) an
eligible offsets project as defined in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming
Initiative) Act 2011 (Commonwealth) section 5; or
(b) an
offsets project, as defined in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative)
Act 2011 (Commonwealth) section 5, if —
(i)
the offsets project is the subject of an application
under section 22 of that Act; and
(ii)
a decision on the application has not been made;
oil shale includes naturally occurring
hydrocarbons that are or may be contained in rocks from which they cannot be
recovered otherwise than by mining those rocks as oil shale;
owner in relation to any land means —
(a) the
registered proprietor thereof or in relation to land not being land under the
Transfer of Land Act 1893 the owner in fee simple or the person entitled to
the equity of redemption thereof; or
(b) the
lessee or licensee from the Crown in respect thereof; or
(c) the
person who for the time being, has the lawful control and management thereof
whether on trust or otherwise; or
(d) the
person who is entitled to receive the rent thereof;
pastoral lease has the meaning given in the Land
Administration Act 1997 section 3(1);
prescribed official means the holder of an office
in the Department that is prescribed, or is of a class prescribed, for the
purposes of the provision in which the term is used;
private land means any land, other than
Commonwealth land, that has been or may hereafter be alienated from the Crown
for any estate of freehold, or is or may hereafter be the subject of any
conditional purchase agreement, or of any lease or concession with or without
a right of acquiring the fee simple thereof (not being a pastoral lease or a
lease or concession otherwise granted by or on behalf of the Crown for grazing
purposes only or for timber purposes, a diversification lease or a lease of
Crown land for the use and benefit of the Aboriginal inhabitants) but —
(a) in
relation to mining for minerals other than gold, silver and precious metals,
for the purposes of Division 3 of Part III, does not include land alienated
before 1 January 1899, except as provided in that Division; and
(b)
other than in so far as the primary tenement may be treated as private land in
relation to mining for gold pursuant to a special prospecting licence or
mining lease under section 56A, 70 or 85B, does not include land that is the
subject of a mining tenement; and
(c) no
land that has been reserved for or dedicated to any public purpose shall be
taken to be private land by reason only that any lease or concession is
granted in relation thereto for any purpose;
processed mineral resource means a substance
produced from a mineral that is under the surface of land without the mineral
being removed from the land;
public purpose means any of the purposes for which
land may be reserved under Part 4 of the Land Administration Act 1997 , and
any purpose declared by the Governor pursuant to that Act, by notification in
the Government Gazette to be a public purpose within the meaning of that Act;
register means the register kept under
section 103F;
registration means registration under
section 103C;
related has a meaning affected by subsection (4);
repealed Act means the Mining Act 1904 2 ;
retention status has a meaning affected by
subsection (5);
reversion licence application means a reversion
licence application authorised by an order under section 120AA(2);
the warden or the mining registrar means the
warden or the mining registrar of the mineral field or district thereof in
which the subject matter in relation to which the term is used arose or is;
vehicle includes an aircraft, helicopter or air
cushion vehicle;
warden means a warden of mines appointed in
accordance with this Act;
warden’s court means the warden’s
court constituted under this Act or deemed so to be for the mineral field or
district thereof in which the subject matter in relation to which the term is
used arose or is.
(2) Notwithstanding
anything in subsection (1), the Minister may, in the event of a dispute
whether a particular substance is or is not oil shale, decide whether that
substance is or is not oil shale for the purposes of this Act and the
Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 and the Minister’s
decision in the matter shall be final.
(3) A reference in
this Act to the owner and occupier of private land includes a reference to a
person who is both the owner and occupier of private land and parts of speech
in the plural number shall be construed accordingly.
(4) For the purposes
of this Act a person is related to —
(a) an
individual, if the person is —
(i)
a spouse or de facto partner; or
(ii)
a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent; or
(iii)
a child, grandchild or great-grandchild; or
(iv)
a sibling,
of the individual,
whether the relationship is a step relationship or a relationship established
by, or traced through marriage or a de facto relationship, a written law or a
natural relationship; and
(b) a
body corporate, if the person is a related entity (as defined in section 9 of
the Corporations Act) in relation to the body corporate.
(5) For the purposes
of this Act —
(a) a
prospecting licence has retention status if an approval under section 54 has
effect in relation to the licence; and
(b) an
exploration licence has retention status if an approval under section 69B has
effect in relation to the licence.
(6) A reference in
this Act to a lease of Crown land for the use and benefit of the Aboriginal
inhabitants includes a lease of Crown land for the social, cultural or
economic benefit of Aboriginal persons.
[Section 8 amended: No. 69 of 1981 s. 6; No. 122
of 1982 s. 5; No. 100 of 1985 s. 5; No. 105 of 1986 s. 7; No. 22 of 1990 s. 4;
No. 37 of 1993 s. 10(2), 12(2), 26 and 27; No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 54 of 1996
s. 4; No. 5 of 1997 s. 40; No. 31 of 1997 s. 71(1) and 141; No. 10 of 2001
s. 130; No. 15 of 2002 s. 4; No. 12 of 2003 s. 4; No. 28 of 2003 s. 152; No.
39 of 2004 s. 20, 42, 47 and 87; No. 27 of 2005 s. 4; No. 35 of 2007 s. 100(2)
and (3); No. 8 of 2010 s. 17; No. 12 of 2010 s. 14; (correction to reprint:
Gazette 1 Jun 2012 p. 2282); No. 51 of 2012 s. 5; No. 44 of 2016 s. 20; No. 4
of 2023 s. 131; No. 27 of 2023 s. 4.]