Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

MINING ACT - SECT 38

38. Application for licence

(1) Subject to this Act, a miner -

(a) who is the holder of an exploration licence may, at any time before relinquishing or surrendering all or any part of a licence area in which an ore body or anomalous zone of possible economic potential has been discovered; or

(b) who was the holder of an exploration licence under the repealed Act and had applied, before the commencement of this Act for a mineral lease, gold mining lease or special mineral lease in respect of all or any part of the land held under that exploration licence and the application had not been processed before the commencement of this Act,

may apply under this section to the Minister to be granted an exploration retention licence in respect of any part of that land.

(2) The area of land in respect of which an application for an exploration retention licence may be made under this Part shall not exceed a discrete area of 4,000 hectares.

(3) Except with the prior written approval of the Minister, a miner shall not apply for or be granted an exploration retention licence if the effect of the grant of the licence would be that the total area of land held by the miner under exploration retention licences and mining tenements would be more than 4,000 hectares of the area originally granted under the exploration licence.