The department has finalised the overwhelming majority of applications within target timelines.
| Date: | Monday, 10 August 2015 |
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The Department of Mines and Petroleum received a record number of mineral prospecting applications and still met its quarterly assessment targets for the 2015 second quarter.
DMP Executive Director Strategic Projects Julie de Jong said the department received 197 Programme of Work prospecting applications in the past three months.
“This is more than twice the amount we have received in any other quarter since the department started tracking approvals,” Mrs de Jong said.
“Despite this record amount, the department finalised 98 per cent of the applications within 30 days.”
The high level of applications was in response to the planned introduction of new mineral exploration and mining fees on 1 July 2015.
These have now been deferred whilst the Mining Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 is being considered by Parliament.
“The department’s other application areas also continued to be assessed within key timeframes,” Mrs de Jong said.
“This included 96 per cent of prospecting and exploration licences, 99 per cent of petroleum environment plans and 100 per cent of petroleum well applications and petroleum safety cases.”
The full report is available on the DMP website.
DMP assessed a record number of mineral prospecting applications in second quarter.
