MINING ACT 1971 - SECT 6
MINING ACT 1971 - SECT 6
(1) In this Act,
unless the contrary intention appears—
"Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary" has the same meaning as in the
Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary Act 2005 ;
"advanced exploration operations"—see subsection (1a);
"ancillary operations" means—
(a)
ancillary operations for the carrying on of any business that may be conducive
to the effective conduct of mining operations or operations associated with
providing amenities for persons engaged in the conduct of mining operations;
or
(b)
operations which are brought within the ambit of this definition by a
determination of the Minister or by the regulations,
but does not include operations excluded from the ambit of this definition by
a determination of the Minister or by the regulations;
"appropriate court" means—
(a) the
Supreme Court; or
(b) the
ERD Court; or
(c) if
proceedings do not involve a monetary claim, or a claim for more than
$250 000—the Warden's Court; 1
"authorised officer" means a person who holds an appointment under
section 14;
"authorised operations" means—
(a)
exploration operations; or
(b)
mining operations; or
(c)
ancillary operations;
"baseline" means the baseline adjacent to the coast of the State (including
the coast of any island forming part of the State) for the time being
determined under section 7(2)(b) of the Seas and Submerged Lands
Act 1973 of the Commonwealth;
"business day" means any day except—
(a) a
Saturday, Sunday or public holiday; or
(b) a
day which falls between 25 December and 1 January in the following
year;
"council" has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act 1999 and
includes a body corporate that is, by virtue of any Act, deemed to be, or
vested with the powers of, a council;
"declared equipment" means—
(a) a
trench digger or excavator; or
(ab)
drilling equipment within a class prescribed by the regulations; or
(b)
mechanically driven equipment, equipped with a blade or bucket of a width
exceeding 750 mm, capable of ripping, gouging, scooping or digging earth or
rock material; or
(c)
equipment that is capable of digging, boring or tunnelling underground,
generally in a horizontal plane, with a cross sectional dimension greater than
750 mm;
"director" of a company includes a person occupying or acting in the position
of a director or member of the governing body of the company, by whatever name
called and whether or not validly appointed to occupy or duly authorised to
act in the position, and includes any person in accordance with whose
directions or instructions the directors or members of the governing body are
accustomed to act;
"the Director of Mines" or "the Director" means the person assigned by the
Minister to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the officer so
designated by this Act;
"environment"—see subsection (4);
"ERD Court" means the Environment, Resources and Development Court established
under the Environment, Resources and Development Court Act 1993 ; 2
"exempt land" means land that is exempt from authorised operations under
section 9;
"exploration authority" means—
(b) a
right to prospect for minerals under section 20;
(c) a
mineral claim;
(d) an
exploration licence;
(e) a
retention lease (but only if the mining operations to which the lease relates
are limited to exploring);
"exploring" or "exploration operations" means operations of any kind in the
course of—
(a)
prospecting for minerals; or
(b)
exploring for minerals; or
(c)
establishing the extent of a mineral deposit; or
(d)
undertaking any other activity brought within the ambit of this definition by
a determination of the Minister or by the regulations; or
(e)
providing for the rehabilitation of land on account of the impact of any
operations under a preceding paragraph,
including such operations carried out at a private mine, and being
operations that are classified as "low impact exploration
operations" or " advanced exploration operations" under
subsection (1a), and "to explore" and "exploratory" have corresponding
meanings;
"extractive minerals" means sand, gravel, stone, shell, shale or clay, but
does not include—
(a) any
such minerals that are mined for a prescribed purpose; or
(b) fire
clay, bentonite or kaolin; or
(c)
proppant sand;
"fossicking" means the gathering of minerals—
(a) as a
recreation; and
(b)
without any intention to sell the minerals or to utilise them for a commercial
or industrial purpose,
but does not include the gathering of minerals by any means involving
disturbance of land or water by machinery or explosives;
"low impact exploration operations"—see subsection (1a);
"machinery" means any device operated otherwise than by muscular force exerted
by the operator;
"marine park" has the same meaning as in the Marine Parks Act 2007 ;
"mine" means any place in which mining operations are carried out;
"mineral land" means any land that is mineral land in consequence of a
declaration under this Act;
"mineral tenement" means—
(a) a
claim, lease or licence under this Act; or
(b) an
entitlement under this Act with respect to a private mine,
(and includes, if the context so requires, the place that constitutes such a
claim, lease, licence or private mine);
"minerals" means—
(a) any
naturally occurring deposit of metal or metalliferous ore, precious stones or
any other mineral (including sand, proppant sand, gravel, stone, shell, coal,
oil shale, shale and clay); or
(b) any
metal, metalliferous substance or mineral recoverable from the sea or a
natural water supply; or
(c) any
metal, metalliferous ore or mineral that has been dumped or discarded—
(i)
in the course of mining operations or operations
incidental to mining operations; or
(ii)
in other prescribed circumstances;
but does not include—
(d) soil
or moss rocks; or
(e)
petroleum or any other substance, the recovery or production of which is
governed by the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Act 2000 ;
"mining" or "mining operations" means—
(a)
operations carried out in the course of prospecting, exploring or mining for
minerals; or
(b)
without limiting paragraph (a), any operations by which minerals are
recovered from any place or situation, including by recovering minerals from
the sea or a natural water supply; or
(c)
on-site operations undertaken to make minerals recovered from the site a
commercially viable product, other operations involving such minerals, or
other operations involving minerals brought on to the site of a mine for
processing; or
(d)
operations carried out at a private mine; or
(da)
operations which are brought within the ambit of this definition by a
determination of the Minister or by the regulations; or
(db)
operations for the rehabilitation of land on account of the impact of any
operations under a preceding paragraph, or on account of a mine closure; or
(e)
operations that are directly related to any operations under a preceding
paragraph,
but does not include—
(f) an
investigation or survey under section 15; or
(g)
fossicking; or
(h) the
surface removal of loose rock material disturbed by agricultural operations;
"mining register" means the register kept by the Mining Registrar under
section 15AA;
"a mining registrar" means a person appointed as a mining registrar under
section 13 and includes the Mining Registrar;
"the Mining Registrar" means a person appointed as the Mining Registrar under
section 13 and includes a person who is acting in the position of Mining
Registrar;
"Mining Rehabilitation Fund" or "fund" means the Mining Rehabilitation Fund
established under section 62AA;
"Murray-Darling Basin" has the same meaning as in the Water Act 2007 of
the Commonwealth;
"native title", "native title holder" and
"native title land"—see Native Title (South Australia) Act 1994 ;
3
"native title mining determination" means a determination authorising a
tenement holder to enter land and carry out mining operations on the land
under Part 9B;
"opal development area" means an area within a precious stones field declared
by the Minister under section 8A to be an opal development area;
"owner" of land means—
(a) a
person who holds a registered estate or interest in the land conferring a
right to immediate possession of the land; or
(b) a
person who holds native title in the land; or
(c) a
person who has, by statute, the care, control or management of the land; or
(d) a
person who is lawfully in occupation of the land;
"precious stones" has the same meaning as in the Opal Mining Act 1995 ;
"precious stones field" means a precious stones field under the
Opal Mining Act 1995 ;
"private mine" means an area declared to be a private mine under section 19 as
in force immediately before 1 September 2000;
"production tenement" means—
(b) a
mining lease;
(c) a
retention lease (if the mining operations to which the lease relates are not
limited to exploring);
(d) an
entitlement under this Act with respect to a private mine;
"proprietor", in relation to a private mine, means a person who was, on the
commencement of this Act, divested of property in the minerals for the
recovery of which the mine is operated, or a person lawfully claiming under
that person;
"prospecting" means operations of any kind in the course of exploring for
minerals except such as involve the disturbance of land or water
by machinery or explosives, and "to prospect" has a corresponding meaning;
"registered representative" of native title holders—see Part 4
Native Title (South Australia) Act 1994 ;
"related body corporate", in relation to a particular entity (being a body
corporate), is a body corporate that is related to the entity under
section 50 of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth;
"relevant Minister" means—
(a) in
relation to the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary—the Minister to whom the
administration of the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary Act 2005 is committed;
or
(b) in
relation to a marine park—the Minister to whom the administration of the
Marine Parks Act 2007 is committed; or
(c) in
relation to a River Murray Protection Area or the Murray-Darling
Basin—the Minister to whom the administration of the River Murray
Act 2003 is committed;
"the repealed Act" means the Mining Act 1930 repealed by this Act;
"River Murray Protection Area" means a River Murray Protection Area under the
River Murray Act 2003 ;
"royalty assessment principles" means the principles set out in
section 17 that apply for the purposes of assessing royalty;
"senior warden" means a warden nominated by the Attorney-General to be the
senior warden of the Warden's Court;
"specially protected area" means—
(a) the
Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary; or
(b) a
marine park; or
(c) a
River Murray Protection Area;
"subsurface stratum" means a stratum resulting from the division of
mineral land into strata under this Act, being a stratum that lies beneath a
surface stratum;
"surface stratum" means a stratum resulting from the division of mineral land
into strata under this Act, being a stratum of which the upper surface is the
surface of those lands;
"tenement holder", or "holder" in relation to a mineral tenement, means—
(a) the
registered holder of a mineral tenement; or
(b) in
relation to a private mine—
(i)
in Part 2A Divisions 1 to 5 (inclusive)—a
proprietor of a private mine; or
(ii)
in any other case—a person carrying out
mining operations in relation to a private mine,
and includes—
(c) a
person who is prospecting for minerals under section 20; and
(d) an
executor, administrator or successor at law;
"warden" means a magistrate nominated by the Attorney-General to exercise the
jurisdiction and powers of a warden under this Act;
"the Warden's Court" means the Warden's Court constituted under Part 10.
(1a) For the purposes
of this Act, exploration operations are classified—
(a) as
"low impact exploration operations , being exploration operations—
(i)
which are not reasonably expected to have any significant
adverse impact on the environment; or
(ii)
which will reduce the impact of such operations on the
environment; or
(iii)
which are brought within the scope of
low impact exploration operations by determination of the Minister or by the
regulations,
that do not fall within the scope of paragraph (b)(i) or (iii); or
(b) as
"advanced exploration operations", being exploration operations—
(i)
which involve the use of declared equipment; or
(ii)
which fall outside the scope of paragraph (a)(i) or
(iii); or
(iii)
which are brought within the scope of
advanced exploration operations by determination of the Minister or by the
regulations.
(2) Where mineral land
is divided into strata under this Act, a reference to land, or an area, shall,
where appropriate, be construed as a reference to the surface stratum or a
subsurface stratum, as the case may require.
(3) An explanatory
note to a provision of this Act forms part of the provision to which it
relates.
(4) Subject to
subsections (5) and (6), "environment" includes—
(a)
land, air, water (including both surface and underground water and sea water),
organisms, ecosystems, native fauna and other features or elements of the
natural environment; and
(b)
buildings, structures and other forms of infrastructure, and cultural
artefacts; and
(c)
existing or permissible land use; and
(d)
public health, safety or amenity; and
(e) the
geological heritage values of an area; and
(f) the
aesthetic or cultural values of an area.
(5) In relation to a
particular mineral tenement, paragraphs (c) and (e) of
subsection (4) apply according to the circumstances existing at the time
that the tenement is (or was) granted.
(6)
Subsection (4) does not apply to or in relation to Parts 9B or 11B.
(7) A reference to a
private mine in a definition in this section only has effect to the extent
that the defined term is used in a provision of this Act that applies to or in
relation to a private mine, or to a person carrying out operations in relation
to a private mine, by virtue of the operation of section 73D.
(8) Any determination
of the Minister under this section—
(a) must
be published in the Gazette; and
(b) may
be varied or revoked by the Minister by a subsequent notice published in the
Gazette.
(9) A provision of
this Act that requires a tenement holder (or prospective
tenement holder)—
(a) to
obtain the agreement or consent of an owner of land; or
(b) to
give a notice to, or to serve a notice on, an owner of land,
will, in relation to a person who is within the ambit of paragraph (c)
or (d) of the definition of "owner of land", apply—
(c) to
the extent that the tenement holder (or prospective tenement holder) is aware
of such a person; or
(d) to
the extent that it is reasonable to expect the tenement holder (or prospective
tenement holder) to be aware of such a person.
Editorial Notes—
1 All native title questions arising in
proceedings before the Warden's Court must be referred to the
ERD Court—see Part 3 Native Title (South Australia) Act 1994 .
2 The
Environment, Resources and Development Court Act 1993 and the
Native Title (South Australia) Act 1994 contain provisions under which
the ERD Court may refer cases to the Supreme Court, or the Supreme Court may
remove cases commenced before the ERD Court into the Supreme Court.
3 Part 5 of the
Native Title (South Australia) Act 1994 sets out the method of service on
native title holders.