MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 70C
MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 70C
70C . Application for retention licence
(1) An application for
a retention licence —
(a)
shall be in the prescribed form; and
(b)
shall be accompanied by the amount of the prescribed rent for the first year
of the term of the licence or portion thereof as prescribed; and
(c)
shall be accompanied by the prescribed application fee; and
(d)
shall be lodged in the prescribed manner; and
(e)
shall be accompanied by a statement specifying —
(i)
the details of the programme of work (if any) proposed to
be carried out in the area in respect of which the licence is sought; and
(ii)
the estimated amount of money (if any) proposed to be
expended on such work.
(2A) An applicant is
to lodge within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner a statutory
declaration made by the applicant to the effect that —
(a)
there is an identified mineral resource in the area in respect of which the
licence is sought; and
(b)
mining of that identified mineral resource is for the time being impracticable
for one or more of the reasons referred to in subsection (2) (that reason or
those reasons being set out in the statutory declaration).
(2) For the purposes
of subsection (2A)(b) mining of an identified mineral resource may be
impracticable because —
(a) the
identified mineral resource is uneconomic or subject to marketing problems
although that resource may reasonably be expected to become economic or
marketable in the future; or
(b) the
identified mineral resource is required to sustain the future operations of an
existing or proposed mining operation; or
(c)
there are existing political, environmental or other difficulties in obtaining
requisite approvals.
(3) An applicant shall
at the request of the mining registrar or warden furnish such further
information in relation to the application, or such evidence in support of the
application, as the mining registrar or warden may require but the mining
registrar or warden shall not require information or evidence relating to
assays or other results of any testing or sampling that the applicant may have
carried out on the land the subject of the application.
(4) Within the
prescribed period the applicant shall serve such notice of the application as
may be prescribed on the owner and occupier of the land to which the
application relates and on such other persons as may be prescribed.
(5) The application
shall be made by reference to a written description of the area of the land in
respect of which the licence is sought, and be accompanied by a map on which
are clearly delineated the boundaries of that area.
(6) Where an
application is made by the holder of a primary tenement and the term of the
primary tenement would but for this subsection expire, the primary tenement
shall continue in force in respect of the land the subject of the application
until —
(a) the
retention licence is granted; or
(b) if
the retention licence is refused, the expiry of a period of 30 days after that
refusal.
(7) If, after an
application is made under subsection (1) in respect of land the subject of a
primary tenement —
(a) the
holder of the tenement transfers the tenement; or
(b)
where there are 2 or more holders of the tenement, a holder transfers the
holder’s interest in the tenement,
the application
continues in the name of the transferee of the tenement or interest as if the
transferee were the applicant or one of the applicants, as the case requires.
(8) For the purposes
of subsection (7), where there are 2 or more transferees of the primary
tenement, each of the transferees is to be regarded as an applicant for an
interest in the relevant retention licence that corresponds to the interest
held by that transferee in the primary tenement.
[Section 70C inserted: No. 37 of 1993 s. 10(1);
amended: No. 58 of 1994 s. 23; No. 17 of 1999 s. 10; No. 12 of 2010 s. 27.]