MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 161

MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 161

161 .         Evidentiary provisions

        (1)         In any proceedings for an offence against this Act, an averment in the charge that any land referred to therein is land —

            (a)         open for mining under this Act;

            (b)         exempt from mining operations in pursuance of this Act;

            (c)         to which section 23, 24, 24A, 25, or 26 applies,

                shall be deemed to be proved in the absence of evidence to the contrary.

        (2)         In any proceedings a document purporting to be a mining tenement shall be accepted as such in the absence of evidence to the contrary.

        (3)         In any proceedings a document purporting to be certified by a person authorised for that purpose by the Director General of Mines as a correct copy of an extract from a register kept under this Act is, without proof of that person’s signature, evidence of the matter contained in the document.

        (4)         In any proceedings —

            (a)         a document purporting to be a copy of a judgment, order or decision of a warden or a warden’s court, or of a document filed or lodged in proceedings under this Act, and purporting to be certified by —

                  (i)         a warden; or

                  (ii)         a mining registrar; or

                  (iii)         a prescribed official,

                to be such a copy, is admissible as a true copy of the judgment, order, decision or document; and

            (b)         judicial notice is to be taken of the signature of a person referred to in paragraph (a)(i), (ii) or (iii) on a certificate under that paragraph.

        [Section 161 amended: No. 122 of 1982 s. 29; No. 37 of 1993 s. 23; No. 54 of 1996 s. 21; No. 5 of 1997 s. 41(2); No. 39 of 2004 s. 83; No. 84 of 2004 s. 80.]