WA Parliamentary Question on Notice regarding the number of project approvals sought for mineral exploration and mining under the Mining Act 1978 between 2017-2021, and how many proceeded to the next stage. The answer provides application numbers but declines to detail progression due to resource constraints.

AnsweredQoN 38Legislative Assembly
Asked
24 June 2021
Portfolio
Mines and Petroleum

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to project approvals for exploration, licences to mine resources or similar, and I ask : (a) For the following years please identify how many project approvals were sought: (i) 2017-18; (ii) 2018-19; (iii) 2019-20; and (iv) 2020-21; and (b) For those in (a), please detail how many projects proceeded to the next stage of approval?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
3 August 2021
Responded by
Minister for Mines and Petroleum
Response time
1 days
(a) There are multiple different licences and approvals required under different legislation for exploration and mining projects in Western Australia. This includes tenure, environmental, safety and heritage approvals. The specific approvals required will alter depending on the circumstances of the each project.
In relation to mineral exploration (programme of work) and mining (mining proposal) approvals under the Mining Act 1978 , the following number of applications were received:
(i) 2017-18
(ii) 2018-19
(iii) 2019-20
(iv) 2020-21
Programme of work (mineral exploration)
2,585
2,444
2,708
3,361
Mining Proposal (mining operations, including expansions and alterations)
316
305
322
342
(b) Whether any of the mining or exploration activities in (a) sought further approvals will depend upon the nature of each individual project. Determining this would require a review of each of the applications and activities summarised above, which would have an unreasonable impact on the activities of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety to provide.

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more