Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts4. Interpretation
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears -
"Aboriginal land" has the same meaning as in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 of the Commonwealth;
"affected land" means land comprised in, or proposed to be comprised in, a mining interest;
"alternative provision area" has the meaning given in section 43A(2) of the Native Title Act;
"approved determination of native title" has the meaning given in section 253 of the Native Title Act;
"clerk", in relation to a warden's court established under section 141, means -
(a) the mining registrar at the place where a warden's court is established; or
(b) a Registrar of the Local Court (within the meaning of section 3 of the Local Court Act ) at the place where a warden's court is sitting;
"Crown land" means all land in the Territory other than -
(a) a reserve or park;
(b) private land;
(c) Aboriginal land;
(d) land the subject of a mining tenement or exploration retention licence;
(e) land reserved from occupation under section 178 of this Act; and
(f) land reserved for or dedicated to a public purpose;
"Department" means the Agency responsible for administering this Act;
"environment" means the physical factors existing in an area, including -
(a) the land and the coastal waters and sea-bed adjacent thereto;
(b) the sub-soil of the land and that sea-bed;
(c) water;
(d) air;
(e) sound;
(f) tastes;
(g) odours; and
(h) radiation,
and includes the social factor of aesthetics and all factors affecting flora and fauna;
"exploration" means all modes of searching for or evaluating deposits of minerals or extractive minerals, but does not include fossicking;
"exploration licence" means an exploration licence granted under Part IV or continued in force by virtue of section 191;
"exploration retention licence" means an exploration retention licence granted under Part V;
"extractive mineral" means sand, gravel, rocks or soil extracted, obtained or removed for a purpose other than -
(a) extracting, producing or refining minerals from the sand, gravel, rocks or soil; or
(b) processing the sand, gravel, rocks or soil by non-mechanical means;
"extractive mineral interest" means an extractive mineral lease or an extractive mineral permit;
"extractive mineral lease" means an extractive mineral lease granted under Division 1 of Part VIII;
"extractive mineral permit" means an extractive mineral permit granted under Division 2 of Part VIII;
"fossick" means to search for or extract a mineral -
(a) by digging by hand or hand-held instrument; or
(b) by using a hand-held instrument,
but does not include the use of explosives or any power-operated equipment other than a hand held metal-detecting device;
"fossicker" means a person who is authorised to fossick -
(a) under section 130C(2); or
(b) on land the subject of a mineral claim by the holder of the mineral claim (the holder having complied with section 134B);
"fossicker's permit" means a fossicker's permit granted under Part X;
"future act" has the meaning given in section 233 of the Native Title Act;
"improvements" means any -
(a) house, store, stable, hut or other building;
(b) fence;
(c) well, dam, tank, trough, pump or other apparatus for raising or storing water; or
(d) garden, plantation or cultivation;
"indigenous land use agreement" means an indigenous land use agreement within the meaning of section 253 of the Native Title Act -
(a) details of which are entered on the Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements established and maintained under Part 8A of the Native Title Act; and
(b) that contains statements to the effect described in section 24EB(1)(b), (c) and (d) of the Native Title Act as applicable;
"land" means land within the jurisdictional limits of the Territory and includes waters within those limits;
"Land Council" means an Aboriginal Land Council established by or under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 of the Commonwealth;
"miner" means the holder of a miner's right and, in relation to an application which by virtue of section 191(15) or (18), is to be processed as though it were an application for a mineral lease or mineral claim, as the case may be, includes the person to be treated as the applicant;
"mineral" means any -
(a) naturally occurring -
(i) inorganic element or compound, including an inorganic carbonate compound; or
(ii) organic carbonate compound,
obtained or obtainable from land by mining, whether carried out under or on the surface of land;
(b) coal and lignite; or
(c) other substance from time to time prescribed as a mineral,
but does not include water or an extractive mineral;
"mineral claim" means a mineral claim granted under Part VII or continued in force by virtue of section 191;
"mineral lease" means a mineral lease granted under Division 2 of Part VI or a mining lease continued in force by virtue of section 191(5);
"miner's right" means a miner's right granted under Part III or continued in force by virtue of section 191;
"mining" means all modes of extracting minerals or extractive minerals by underground, surface or open-cut workings;
"mining interest" means an exploration licence, exploration retention licence, mineral lease, mineral claim, extractive mineral lease or extractive mineral permit or an authority under section 178;
"mining officer" has the same meaning as in the Mining Management Act ;
"mining registrar" means a person appointed as a mining registrar under section 5(1), and includes the principal registrar;
"mining tenement" means a mineral lease, mineral claim, extractive mineral lease or extractive mineral permit and includes an area of land the right to occupation of which is conferred by section 61(2) or 104(2) or is continued by or under section 191(19) or (20);
"native title" and "native title rights and interests" have the meaning given in section 223 of the Native Title Act;
"Native Title Act" means the Native Title Act 1993 of the Commonwealth;
"native title holder" has the meaning given in section 224 of the Native Title Act;
"native title objection" means an objection to a prescribed mining act so far as it affects the registered native title rights and interests of a registered native title claimant or registered native title body corporate that is lodged in accordance with section 140E or 163 by that claimant or body;
"Native Title Registrar" has the meaning given in section 253 of the Native Title Act;
"onshore place" has the meaning given in section 253 of the Native Title Act;
"owner" and "occupier", in relation to land, means the owner of an estate or interest in the land, but does not include a person whose interest or claimed interest in the land cannot be identified by or as a result of an examination of the Register kept by the Registrar-General under Part 3 of the Land Title Act ;
"park or reserve" means a park or reserve within the meaning of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 of the Commonwealth or the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act , and includes the sanctuary as defined in section 3 of the Cobourg Peninsula Aboriginal Land, Sanctuary and Marine Park Act ;
"prescribed mining act" has the meaning given in section 140A;
"previous exclusive possession act" has the meaning given in section 3A of the Validation (Native Title) Act ;
"principal registrar" means the person appointed as principal registrar under section 5(1) and includes a person acting as the principal registrar;
"private land" means land that is -
(a) alienated from the Crown for an estate of freehold;
(b) the subject of a conditional purchase agreement; or
(c) the subject of a lease or concession, with or without a right of acquiring the fee simple, other than a lease or concession for pastoral or timber purposes,
but does not include -
(d) Aboriginal land;
(e) land held for an estate in fee simple, or in a lease from the Crown, by the Conservation Land Corporation established by section 27 of the Parks and Wildlife Commission Act ; or
(f) land held or occupied for mining purposes under this Act or the repealed Act;
"Register of Native Title Claims" means the Register of Native Title Claims established and maintained in accordance with Part 7 of the Native Title Act;
"registered native title body corporate" has the meaning given in section 253 of the Native Title Act;
"registered native title claimant" has the meaning given in section 253 of the Native Title Act or, if the claimant is replaced under section 66B of that Act, means the person who replaced the claimant;
"registered native title rights and interests" means -
(a) in relation to a registered native title claimant - the native title rights and interests of the claimant described in the relevant entry on the Register of Native Title Claims; and
(b) in relation to a registered native title body corporate - the native title rights and interests of the body corporate described in the relevant entry on the National Native Title Register established and maintained under Part 8 of the Native Title Act;
"Regulations" means the Regulations made under this Act;
"relevant Authorisation", in relation to a mining interest or mining tenement, means the Authorisation granted by the Minister under Division 2 of Part 4 of the Mining Management Act that relates to the exploration or mining activities carried out on the area of land held under the mining interest or mining tenement;
"repealed Act" means the Acts repealed by section 3, as in force immediately before that repeal;
"representative Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander body" has the meaning given in section 253 of the Native Title Act;
"Secretary" means the Chief Executive Officer as defined in the Public Sector Employment and Management Act , of the Agency as defined in that Act primarily responsible under the Minister for the administration of this Act;
"tailings or other mining material" means any rejected material resulting from the processing of ore, or any stack or accumulation of material resulting from mining or mining activities;
"tourist fossicking" means a commercial venture (undertaken in respect of land the subject of a mineral claim) whereby fossicking is offered as an activity to be carried out by a person who agrees to comply with the conditions of admission on and access over the claim area;
"Tribunal" means the Lands, Planning and Mining Tribunal established by the Lands, Planning and Mining Tribunal Act ;
"Trust Fund" means the Mining Trust Fund established and maintained under section 174H;
"warden" means a magistrate or a person appointed as a warden under section 5(1A).
(2) A reference in this Act to a lease area, licence area, claim area, tenement area, mining tenement area or permit area is a reference to the area of land held under the lease, claim, licence, tenement, mining tenement or permit, as the case may be, in relation to which the reference is made.
(3) Where in this Act the expression "Default penalty" appears in or at the foot of a section, or subsection of a section, being a section or subsection that provides that a person is guilty of an offence against this Act, a person who has been found guilty of that offence is guilty of a further offence against this Act if the offence continues after he has been so found guilty, and is punishable, upon being found guilty for the further offence, by a penalty not exceeding the amount of the default penalty specified after that expression for each day during which the offence continues.
(4) Where an offence is committed by a person by reason of his failure to comply with the provision of this Act by or under which he is required to do any thing within a particular period, that person commits the further offence referred to in subsection (3) while the failure to do that thing continues, notwithstanding that that period has expired.
(5) For the purpose of the definition of "private land" in subsection (1), a reference to land leased for pastoral purposes includes a lease of the land from the Crown for any other purpose granted over the land after the commencement of the Mining Amendment Act 1993 and, where the land is subdivided after that commencement, includes a lease of the land from the Crown that has an area greater than 150 square kilometres.