MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 8

MINING ACT 1978 - SECT 8

8 .         Terms used

        (1)         In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears —

        agricultural used in relation to the purposes for which land is occupied, includes cropping or pasturing purposes;

        burial ground means an area of land reserved or demarcated exclusively for the purpose of burials;

        commencing date means the date of the coming into operation of the provisions of this Act referred to in section 2(2);

        Commonwealth land means —

            (a)         land in respect of which the Commonwealth holds a freehold or leasehold interest; or

            (b)         land that is otherwise vested in or held by the Commonwealth or vested in or held by an officer or person on behalf of the Commonwealth;

        Corporations Act means the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth;

        Crown land means all land except —

            (a)         land that has been reserved for or dedicated to any public purpose other than —

                  (i)         land reserved for mining or commons;

                  (ii)         land reserved and designated for public utility for any purpose under the Land Administration Act 1997 ;

            (b)         land that has been lawfully granted or contracted to be granted in fee simple by or on behalf of the Crown;

            (c)         land that is subject to any lease granted by or on behalf of the Crown other than —

                  (i)         a pastoral lease or a lease otherwise granted for grazing purposes only; or

            (ia)         a diversification lease; or

                  (ii)         a lease for timber purposes; or

                  (iii)         a lease of Crown land for the use and benefit of the Aboriginal inhabitants;

            (d)         land that is a townsite within the meaning of the Land Administration Act 1997 ;

        dam means any accumulation or storage of water, whether natural or artificial;

        damage , in relation to agricultural land, includes the disturbance of stock and any proper cost reasonably incurred for the purpose of rectifying that disturbance;

        dealing means a transfer or mortgage of a legal interest in a mining tenement;

        Department means the department of the Public Service of the State principally assisting the Minister in the administration of this Act;

        designated tenement contact (DTC) , in respect of a mining tenement, or an application for a mining tenement, means the person who is, or the persons who are, in accordance with the regulations, the designated tenement contact for the mining tenement or application;

        Director General of Mines means the person for the time being holding or acting in the office of chief executive officer of the Department;

        Director, Geological Survey means the person for the time being holding or acting in the office of Director, Geological Survey in the Department;

        diversification lease has the meaning given in the Land Administration Act 1997 section 92B(1);

        expenditure conditions in relation to a mining tenement means the prescribed conditions applicable to a mining tenement that require the expenditure of money on or in connection with the mining tenement or the mining operations carried out thereon or proposed to be so carried out;

        fossick means to search for, extract and remove rock, ore or minerals, other than gold or diamonds, in quantities not exceeding the prescribed amount and by means not prohibited under the regulations, as samples or specimens for the purpose of a mineral collection, lapidary work or a hobby interest;

        geological sample includes a drill core;

        ground disturbing equipment means —

            (a)         mechanical drilling equipment; or

            (b)         a backhoe, bulldozer, grader or scraper; or

            (c)         any other machinery of a kind prescribed for the purposes of this definition;

        identified mineral resource means a deposit of minerals identified in the prescribed manner;

        LAA Minister means the Minister to whom the administration of the Land Administration Act 1997 is for the time being committed by the Governor;

        land includes water; and also includes —

            (a)         the foreshore as defined in section 25(1)(a); and

            (b)         the sea bed and subsoil between the mean low water springs level and the inner limits of the coastal waters of the State as defined in section 16(1) and (2) of the Offshore Minerals Act 2003 ;

        land under cultivation means land being used for agricultural purposes and includes any land, whether cleared or uncleared, used by a person for the grazing of stock in the ordinary course of management of the land of that person where the land so used for grazing forms the whole or a part of the land owned or occupied by that person;

        lapidary work includes the selection, cutting, polishing, engraving and setting of rock or other minerals;

        listed public company means a corporation that is a listed corporation within the meaning of that expression in the Corporations Act ;

        local government means the local government of the district in which the matter in relation to which the term is used, arose or is situated;

        machinery includes all mechanical appliances of whatever kind used or intended to be used for any mining purpose;

        marine management area , marine nature reserve and marine park have the meanings given to them by the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 ;

        mine , as a noun, means any place in, on or under which mining operations are carried on;

        mine , as a verb, includes any manner or method of mining operations;

        mineral field means a mineral field constituted under this Act or deemed so to be;

        minerals means naturally occurring substances obtained or obtainable from any land by mining operations carried out on or under the surface of the land, but does not include —

            (a)         soil; or

            (b)         a substance the recovery of which is governed by the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 or the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982 ; or

            (ba)         without limiting paragraph (b), geothermal energy resources as defined in the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 section 5(1); or

            (c)         a meteorite as defined in the Museum Act 1969 ; or

            (d)         any of the following substances if it occurs on private land —

                  (i)         limestone, rock or gravel; or

                  (ii)         shale, other than oil shale; or

                  (iii)         sand, other than mineral sand, silica sand or garnet sand; or

                  (iv)         clay, other than kaolin, bentonite, attapulgite or montmorillonite;

        miner’s right means a miner’s right issued under section 40C;

        mining includes fossicking, prospecting and exploring for minerals, and mining operations;

        mining operations means any mode or method of working whereby the earth or any rock structure stone fluid or mineral bearing substance may be disturbed removed washed sifted crushed leached roasted distilled evaporated smelted combusted or refined or dealt with for the purpose of obtaining any mineral or processed mineral resource therefrom whether it has been previously disturbed or not and includes —

            (a)         the removal of overburden by mechanical or other means and the stacking, deposit, storage and treatment of any substance considered to contain any mineral; and

            (b)         operations by means of which salt or other evaporites may be harvested; and

            (c)         operations by means of which mineral is recovered from the sea or a natural water supply; and

            (da)         operations by means of which a processed mineral resource is produced and recovered; and

            (d)         the doing of all acts incident or conducive to any such operation or purposes;

        mining product means any material won from land by mining;

        mining registrar means a mining registrar appointed in accordance with this Act or deemed so to be and includes a reference to the person holding, acting in, or performing the functions of a prescribed office or position in the Department;

        mining tenement means a prospecting licence, exploration licence, retention licence, mining lease, general purpose lease or a miscellaneous licence granted or acquired under this Act or by virtue of the repealed Act; and includes the specified piece of land in respect of which the mining tenement is so granted or acquired;

        occupier in relation to any land includes any person in actual occupation of the land under any lawful title granted by or derived from the owner of the land;

        offsets project means —

            (a)         an eligible offsets project as defined in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Commonwealth) section 5; or

            (b)         an offsets project, as defined in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (Commonwealth) section 5, if —

                  (i)         the offsets project is the subject of an application under section 22 of that Act; and

                  (ii)         a decision on the application has not been made;

        oil shale includes naturally occurring hydrocarbons that are or may be contained in rocks from which they cannot be recovered otherwise than by mining those rocks as oil shale;

        owner in relation to any land means —

            (a)         the registered proprietor thereof or in relation to land not being land under the Transfer of Land Act 1893 the owner in fee simple or the person entitled to the equity of redemption thereof; or

            (b)         the lessee or licensee from the Crown in respect thereof; or

            (c)         the person who for the time being, has the lawful control and management thereof whether on trust or otherwise; or

            (d)         the person who is entitled to receive the rent thereof;

        pastoral lease has the meaning given in the Land Administration Act 1997 section 3(1);

        prescribed official means the holder of an office in the Department that is prescribed, or is of a class prescribed, for the purposes of the provision in which the term is used;

        private land means any land, other than Commonwealth land, that has been or may hereafter be alienated from the Crown for any estate of freehold, or is or may hereafter be the subject of any conditional purchase agreement, or of any lease or concession with or without a right of acquiring the fee simple thereof (not being a pastoral lease or a lease or concession otherwise granted by or on behalf of the Crown for grazing purposes only or for timber purposes, a diversification lease or a lease of Crown land for the use and benefit of the Aboriginal inhabitants) but —

            (a)         in relation to mining for minerals other than gold, silver and precious metals, for the purposes of Division 3 of Part III, does not include land alienated before 1 January 1899, except as provided in that Division; and

            (b)         other than in so far as the primary tenement may be treated as private land in relation to mining for gold pursuant to a special prospecting licence or mining lease under section 56A, 70 or 85B, does not include land that is the subject of a mining tenement; and

            (c)         no land that has been reserved for or dedicated to any public purpose shall be taken to be private land by reason only that any lease or concession is granted in relation thereto for any purpose;

        processed mineral resource means a substance produced from a mineral that is under the surface of land without the mineral being removed from the land;

        public purpose means any of the purposes for which land may be reserved under Part 4 of the Land Administration Act 1997 , and any purpose declared by the Governor pursuant to that Act, by notification in the Government Gazette to be a public purpose within the meaning of that Act;

        register means the register kept under section 103F;

        registration means registration under section 103C;

        related has a meaning affected by subsection (4);

        repealed Act means the Mining Act 1904 ² ;

        retention status has a meaning affected by subsection (5);

        reversion licence application means a reversion licence application authorised by an order under section 120AA(2);

        the warden or the mining registrar means the warden or the mining registrar of the mineral field or district thereof in which the subject matter in relation to which the term is used arose or is;

        vehicle includes an aircraft, helicopter or air cushion vehicle;

        warden means a warden of mines appointed in accordance with this Act;

        warden’s court means the warden’s court constituted under this Act or deemed so to be for the mineral field or district thereof in which the subject matter in relation to which the term is used arose or is.

        (2)         Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1), the Minister may, in the event of a dispute whether a particular substance is or is not oil shale, decide whether that substance is or is not oil shale for the purposes of this Act and the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 and the Minister’s decision in the matter shall be final.

        (3)         A reference in this Act to the owner and occupier of private land includes a reference to a person who is both the owner and occupier of private land and parts of speech in the plural number shall be construed accordingly.

        (4)         For the purposes of this Act a person is related to —

            (a)         an individual, if the person is —

                  (i)         a spouse or de facto partner; or

                  (ii)         a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent; or

                  (iii)         a child, grandchild or great-grandchild; or

                  (iv)         a sibling,

                of the individual, whether the relationship is a step relationship or a relationship established by, or traced through marriage or a de facto relationship, a written law or a natural relationship; and

            (b)         a body corporate, if the person is a related entity (as defined in section 9 of the Corporations Act) in relation to the body corporate.

        (5)         For the purposes of this Act —

            (a)         a prospecting licence has retention status if an approval under section 54 has effect in relation to the licence; and

            (b)         an exploration licence has retention status if an approval under section 69B has effect in relation to the licence.

        (6)         A reference in this Act to a lease of Crown land for the use and benefit of the Aboriginal inhabitants includes a lease of Crown land for the social, cultural or economic benefit of Aboriginal persons.

        [Section 8 amended: No. 69 of 1981 s. 6; No. 122 of 1982 s. 5; No. 100 of 1985 s. 5; No. 105 of 1986 s. 7; No. 22 of 1990 s. 4; No. 37 of 1993 s. 10(2), 12(2), 26 and 27; No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 54 of 1996 s. 4; No. 5 of 1997 s. 40; No. 31 of 1997 s. 71(1) and 141; No. 10 of 2001 s. 130; No. 15 of 2002 s. 4; No. 12 of 2003 s. 4; No. 28 of 2003 s. 152; No. 39 of 2004 s. 20, 42, 47 and 87; No. 27 of 2005 s. 4; No. 35 of 2007 s. 100(2) and (3); No. 8 of 2010 s. 17; No. 12 of 2010 s. 14; (correction to reprint: Gazette 1 Jun 2012 p. 2282); No. 51 of 2012 s. 5; No. 44 of 2016 s. 20; No. 4 of 2023 s. 131; No. 27 of 2023 s. 4.]