WA winners will be announced on 9 October.
| Date: | Thursday, 24 September 2015 |
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Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) Manager Environmental Reform Sarah Bellamy is a finalist in the Government and Academia category for the 2015 Telstra WA Business Women’s Awards.
Ms Bellamy manages the department’s Mining Rehabilitation Fund (MRF) and was instrumental in developing and implementing the world-first environmental policy.
Director General Richard Sellers said Ms Bellamy has been a valuable member of the department’s Environment Division since 2013 and congratulated her on reaching the final six in the Government and Academia category.
“Sarah’s extremely passionate about ensuring an equitable system is in place to rehabilitate abandoned mines and encouraging environmentally responsible mining development in Western Australia,” Mr Sellers said.
“The MRF is an extremely important part of the environmental reform program the department has been implementing since 2012.
“It’s been extremely successful so far and broadly acclaimed, which is a credit to Sarah’s hard work and dedication to the project.”
Since its full implementation in 2014 the MRF has been praised by the mining industry, industry commentators and the Western Australian Auditor General, and similar models are being considered by other mining jurisdictions in Australia and internationally.
The MRF is a pooled fund, contributed to by mining tenement holders, that can be used to rehabilitate abandoned mines in the event that an operator is unable to fulfil its environmental obligations and all other avenues to recover funds have been exhausted.
Ms Bellamy is up against five other successful Western Australian business women in the Government and Academia category.
Western Australian winners will be announced on Friday 9 October and will proceed to the national finals in Melbourne on Wednesday 18 November.
The Mining Rehabilitation Fund is also a finalist for the 2015 Premier’s Awards in the Developing the Economy category.
The Premier’s Awards winners will be announced on Wednesday 28 October.
Ms Bellamy is one of six WA finalists in the Government and Academia category.
