'Level Pegging' report into mining tenements confirms our suspicions...

June 20, 2002 - Greens (WA) MLC Robin Chapple has welcomed the findings of the 'Level Pegging: Managing Mineral Titles in Western Australia' report by the Auditor General for WA.

In a submission to the 'Technical Taskforce on Mineral Tenements and Land Title Applications' in September 2002, Mr Chapple wrote:

1. Widespread exemption applications

The spirit of the Mining Act was based on a principle of 'use it or lose it' whereby a tenement holder was forced to work their lease or forego the right to the land. The widespread practice of claiming an exemption from expenditure provisions of the Act has led to a number of large mining companies becoming de-facto landholders, rather than the State. We believe this has caused a great deal of difficulty for prospectors and smaller mining companies, since large tracts of land are held under exempted ELs and MLs and unavailable for exploration by other parties.

'We are pleased to see that the Auditor General's office has essentially endorsed this position, with a series of findings indicating that the process of assessment by the Department of exemptions on mining tenements suffers from a range of serious problems,' Mr Chapple said.

The AG has recommended that the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) 'initiate procedures to ensure that tenements that do not comply with minimum expenditure requirements and are refused exemptions (and are not the subject of plaint action) are made subject to forfeiture.'

This significant recommendation, if adopted by Government, should act as an effective deterrent to the practice of 'warehousing' land and then claiming blanket exemptions on one pretext or another by the mining companies.

The Greens (WA) await the Government's response to the AG's recommendations with interest.

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