Mining Act 1992 Mining (General) Amendment Regulation 2000 (2000-210) [GG No 62 of 26.5.2000, p 4255] (NSW)

2000 No 210

Mining (General) Amendment New South Wales

Regulation 2000

under the

Mining Act 1992

His Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, has made the following Regulation under the Mining Act 1992.

EDWARD OBEID, M.L.C.,

Minister for Mineral Resources

Explanatory note
The objects of this Regulation are:

(a)	to vary the manner in which the amount of the security deposit required in respect of mining for privately-owned minerals is calculated, and
(b)	to vary, in certain cases, the times at which royalties on minerals (other than coal) are payable and the times at which returns relating to such royalties are to be furnished, and
(c)	to make further provision with respect to fossicking for minerals, and
(d)	to provide for penalty notices for offences occasioned by contravention of certain licence conditions, and
(e)	to prescribe matters required or permitted to be prescribed under the Mining Act 1992 (as amended by the Mining Amendment Act 1999) and to amend the Mining (General) Regulation 1997 in other minor respects as a consequence of the enactment of that Act.

This Regulation is made under the Mining Act 1992, including sections 8, 21,

34, 164, 211, 289, 291, 375A, 383 and 388.

Published in Gazette No 62 of 26 May 2000, page 4255	Page 1
[12]
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Clause 1	Mining (General) Amendment Regulation 2000

Mining (General) Amendment Regulation 2000

1      Name of Regulation

This Regulation is the Mining (General) Amendment Regulation

2000.

2 Commencement

This Regulation commences on 26 May 2000.

3 Amendment of Mining (General) Regulation 1997

The Mining (General) Regulation 1997 is amended as set out in

Schedule 1.

4 Notes

The explanatory note does not form part of this Regulation.

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Mining (General) Amendment Regulation 2000

Amendments	Schedule 1
Schedule 1	Amendments

(Clause 3)

[1]      Clause 7 Meaning of “occupier”

Omit the clause. Insert instead:

7      Meaning of “landholder”

(1) Persons who are recognised by the Director-General as being landholders of a particular parcel of land are landholders for the purposes of the definition of landholder in the Dictionary at the end of the Act.

(2) Any person may apply to the Director-General for recognition as a landholder of specified land.

(3) The application must indicate the grounds on which the applicant claims to be a landholder of the land.

(4) The Director-General may require the application to be verified by statutory declaration.

(5) The Director-General must decide whether or not to recognise the applicant as a landholder of the land and must cause written notice of the decision to be given to the applicant as soon as practicable after it is made.

(6)	The Director-General may at any time, by notice in writing served on the person, withdraw a person's recognition as a landholder of specified land.
(7)	The Director-General must cause a register to be maintained in which the following particulars are to be recorded:

(a)	particulars identifying each parcel of land in respect of which the Director-General recognises any person as being a landholder,
(b)	the name and address of each such person.

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Schedule 1 Amendments

(8)	The register is to be kept available at the head office of the Department for inspection, free of charge, by members of the public.
(9)	A person who, immediately before the commencement of the Mining (General) Amendment Regulation 2000, was recognised by the Director-General as an occupier of any land is taken, subject to this clause, to be recognised by the Director-General as a landholder of that land.

[2]      Clause 9 Mining for privately owned minerals: section 8

Omit clause 9 (1) (b). Insert instead:

(b) is to be of an amount determined by the Minister.

[3]      Clause 10

Omit the clause. Insert instead:

10      Fossicking: section 12

(1)  A person must not:

(a)

fossick for minerals using explosives, power-operated equipment or any other equipment except a hand-held (not power-driven) implement, or

(b)

fossick for minerals on land that is or in waters that are the subject of an approved determination of native title under the Native Title Act 1993 of the Commonwealth, to the effect that native title exists, except with the consent of the relevant registered native title body corporate with respect to that native title, or

(c)

in the course of fossicking for minerals:

(i)	excavate or clear any land or waters, or
(ii)	damage or remove any bushrock, or

(d)

in the course of fossicking for minerals, remove more

than:

(i)	10 kilograms of minerals (other than gold or gemstones), or
(ii)	30 grams of gold, or

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Amendments Schedule 1

(iii)      20 grams of gemstones,

during any single period of 48 hours.

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units.

(2) In this clause, gemstone means a Group 3, Group 6 or Group
7 mineral.

[4]      Clause 21 Rights of way: section 164

Omit “owner or occupier of the land” wherever occurring in clause 21
(4).
Insert instead “the landholder”.

[5]      Clause 31 Rights of way: section 211

Omit “the owner or occupier of the land” wherever occurring in clause
31 (4).
Insert instead “the landholder”.

[6]      Clause 31A

Insert after clause 31:

31A Compensation arising under mineral claim

For the purposes of section 266 (4) (c) of the Act, the prescribed amount is $10.

[7]      Clause 33 Opal prospecting blocks: section 224

Omit the clause.

[8]      Clause 34A

Insert after clause 34:

34A Compensation arising under opal prospecting licence

For the purposes of section 267 (4) (c) of the Act, the prescribed amount is $10.

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Schedule 1 Amendments

[9]      Clause 40 Returns: section 289

Omit clause 40 (1) (b) (i). Insert instead:

(i)        at the time at which royalty is payable, in the case of minerals other than coal, and

[10]      Clause 41 Payment of royalty: section 291

Omit the clause. Insert instead:

41      Payment of royalty: section 291

(1)	This clause prescribes the times at which, and the periods in respect of which, royalty is payable to the Minister under the Act, except to the extent that a determination under section 291 (1) (b) of the Act is in force.
(2)	In the case of minerals other than coal, royalty is payable on or before 31 July in each year in respect of the period of 12 months ending on the last preceding 30 June, unless subclause (3) applies.

(3) In the case of a person by whom, in respect of the last preceding period of 12 months that ended on 30 June, an amount of royalty greater than $50,000 was payable in respect of minerals (other than coal), royalty on minerals (other than coal) recovered during the succeeding period of 12 months is payable:

(a)	on or before 31 October, in respect of the period of 3 months ending on 30 September, and
(b)	on or before 31 January, in respect of the period of 3 months ending on 31 December, and
(c)	on or before 30 April, in respect of the period of 3 months ending on 31 March, and
(d)	on or before 31 July, in respect of the period of 3 months ending on 30 June.
(4)	In the case of coal, royalty is payable within 21 days after the beginning of each month.

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[11]      Clause 48–50

Insert after clause 47:

48      Service of documents on the Crown: section 383

For the purposes of section 383 (6) of the Act, the prescribed manner of service is by sending the document to the head office or regional office of the Government Department or public authority responsible for administration of the land.

49      Penalty notices for contraventions of conditions of mining title: section 375A

(1) For the purposes of section 375A (2) of the Act, the prescribed penalty for an offence under section 374A of the Act that consists of a contravention of or failure to comply with a condition described in Columns 1 and 2 of Schedule 7 is the penalty specified in Column 4 of that Schedule opposite the description of the condition.

(2)  For the purposes of section 145B of the Justices Act 1902, the prescribed expression for an offence under section 374A of the Act that consists of a contravention of or failure to comply with a condition described in Columns 1 and 2 of Schedule 7 is:

(a)	the expression specified in Column 3 of that Schedule, or
(b)	if a choice of words is indicated in that expression, the words remaining after the omission of the words irrelevant to the offence.

[12]      Schedule 3 Conditions for prospecting for and mining privately owned minerals

Omit clause 1 (1). Insert instead:

(1) The maximum area over which prospecting operations or mining operations may be conducted at any one time is the area determined by the Minister and notified to the person conducting the operations.

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[13]      Schedule 3, clause 8

Insert after clause 7:

8      Security for rehabilitation

(1)	If it appears to the Minister that any security lodged by a miner or prospector under section 8 (1) (b) of the Act is inadequate to secure observance of the conditions prescribed by clauses 2, 3 and 4, the Minister may, by notice in writing, require the miner or prospector to give and maintain further security for compliance with those conditions.
(2)	A security lodged under section 8 (1) (b) of the Act or given under this clause may be retained by the Minister until the Minister is satisfied that the conditions prescribed by clauses 2, 3 and 4 have been observed.
(3)	Such part of any such security as the Minister may determine is to be forfeited to the Crown if the miner or prospector fails to observe any of the conditions prescribed by clauses 2, 3 and 4.
(4)	Money realised from the forfeiture of any such security is to be applied for the purpose of rehabilitating the land affected by prospecting or mining operations.

(5) The functions of the Minister under this clause may be exercised with or without the benefit of a finding by a court or tribunal that the miner or prospector has failed to observe any of the conditions prescribed by clauses 2, 3 and 4.

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[14]      Schedule 7

Insert after Schedule 6:

Schedule 7 Penalty notice offences

(Clause 49)

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4
Type of mining	Nature of	Short	Penalty for
title	condition	description of	contravention
contravention	or failure to
or failure to	comply
comply
Mineral claim	Requirement to	Not maintain area	1 penalty unit
maintain marks	marks
defining area of claim
Mineral claim	Prohibition on	Keep more than	1 penalty unit
keeping more than	one dog on claim
one dog on claim
Mineral claim	Requirement to	Not comply with	2 penalty units
comply with	direction of
direction given by	Registrar/
Mining Registrar,	Inspector/Officer
Inspector of Mines or Opal Field Management Officer
Mineral claim	Requirement to	Disposal not in	5 penalty units
dispose of soil,	accordance with
rock and tailings in	plan/direction
accordance with Opal Field Management Plan or as directed
Mineral claim	Requirement to	Claim not neat/tidy	5 penalty units
maintain claim in clean and tidy condition
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Mineral claim	Prohibition on	Unauthorised	10 penalty units
erection of	structure
unauthorised structures
Mineral claim	Requirement to	Unsafe operations	10 penalty units
ensure operations are conducted so as to provide safety to persons and stock
Mineral claim	Requirement to fill	Unsafe	10 penalty units
in or make safe	shaft/excavation
shafts and excavations
Exploration licence	Requirement to	Not report	5 penalty units
or assessment lease	lodge report of	exploration
exploration activity
Exploration licence	Requirement to	Site not clean/tidy	10 penalty units
or assessment lease	leave exploration site in clean and tidy condition
Exploration licence	Requirement to	Unsafe excavation	10 penalty units
or assessment lease	make safe any drillholes or other excavations
Exploration licence	Requirement to	Not comply with	10 penalty units
or assessment lease	comply with	direction of
direction given by	Inspector/Officer
Inspector or Environmental Officer
Mining lease	Requirement to	Not contain	5 penalty units
prevent slurry or	slurry/silt
silt flowing outside lease boundary
Mining lease	Requirement to	Not report	5 penalty units
lodge report

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Mining lease	Requirement to	Not comply with	10 penalty units
comply with	direction of
direction given by	Inspector/Officer
Inspector or Environmental Officer
Mining lease	Prohibition on	Unauthorised	10 penalty units
erection of	structure
unauthorised structures
Mining lease	Requirement to	Unsafe operations	10 penalty units
ensure operations are conducted so as to provide safety to persons and stock
Mining lease	Requirement to fill	Unsafe	10 penalty units
in or make safe	shaft/ excavation
shafts and excavations
Mining lease	Requirement to	Area not clean/tidy	20 penalty units
maintain lease area in clean and tidy condition
Mining lease	Requirement to	Not mine in	20 penalty units
mine in accordance	accordance with
with mining	plan
operations plan

BY AUTHORITY