A Mining Lease allows the lessee to work and mine the land, take and remove minerals, and do all of the things necessary to carry out mining operations in, on or under the land, subject to conditions of the title.
The maximum area for a Mining Lease, applied for before 10 February 2006, is 1000 hectares. Beyond that, the area applied for relates to an identified orebody as well as an area for infrastructure requirements. Mining Leases must be marked out.
There is no limit to the number of mining leases a person or company may hold. The term of a mining lease is 21 years and may be renewed for further terms.
Applying for a Mining Lease
Documents required to be lodged before a mining lease may be granted
- A Form 32 security in the sum of $5000 must be lodged in respect to all applications within 28 days of the application being made.
- One of the following three types of documentation:
- a Mining Proposal completed in accordance with the Mining Proposal Guidelines
- a Supporting Statement about likely mining operations and a Mineralisation Report that has been prepared by a qualified person and in accordance with the Mineralisation Report Guidelines. Please also refer to the checklist.
- a Supporting Statement about likely mining operations, and a Resource Report that complies with the JORC Code (the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves) and has been made to the Australian Securities Exchange Ltd. Click through for more information about Resource Reports.
A draft mineralisation report template and supporting statement template is also available for download to assist stakeholders in preparing these documents.
Before applying for a Mining Lease, the most appropriate route should be determined by the applicant, as it is not possible to change from a Mineralisation Report route to a Mining Proposal route or vice versa once the application has been submitted.
If the purpose of the Mining Lease application is either to extract basic raw materials such as rock, sand or gravel, or to conduct a small-scale mining operation (and there are insufficient ‘exploration results’ to demonstrate significant mineralisation) then it is recommended that the most appropriate method to proceed is via a Mining Proposal under Section 74(1)(ca)(i). Otherwise, ‘exploration results’ must be obtained prior to lodging the Mining Lease application.
Discussion with staff at the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (the Department) on this issue prior to application lodgment is welcome.
Please note: the Department is unable to undertake a pre-assessment of an application before it is submitted and cannot provide a yes/no response as to whether or not there is significant mineralisation or evaluate whether the application is compliant with the Mining Act 1978 (the Act).
Affidavit of compliance
- An applicant or agent for an application for a mining tenement must lodge an Affidavit of Compliance under oath to swear that the applicant/agent has complied with certain requirements of the Mining Act 1978.
- In the affidavit of compliance it must be sworn that:
- details of all notices have been served
- the application complies with the relevant marking out provisions of the Act and Regulations (if applicable)
- if private land has been marked out the permit to enter number issued is inserted
- The affidavit is lodged after all notices have been served. There are different affidavits of compliance for each tenement application type:
