Substantial disturbance
Although an individual mining activity may not appear to cause much disturbance to an area, the combined effect of several adjacent activities may result in substantial disturbance.
Mining activities that will cause substantial disturbance of a mining site must hold an environmental mining licence to carry out the activities.
This is required under the Environment Protection Act 2019.
Activities causing substantial disturbance
The following activities, individually or combined, can cause substantial disturbance to an area:
- land clearing
- earthworks including cutting, filling, excavating or trenching
- above-ground works including for building roads, buildings, bridges, railways or airstrips, or works for setting up conveyors, pipelines, telephone or power lines
- underground works including for tunnels, wells, pipelines, conduits or cables
- waterworks including works for dams, impoundments, canals or drainage, or the alteration of river or creek banks, water courses or shorelines
- extracting resources from the surface of the land, underground, riverbeds or under the sea
- stockpiling ore, overburden, waste materials or by-products
- establishing seismic lines, drill pads, drill holes, grids, tracks or costeans
- setting up a camp for workers
- blasting
- active remote sensing and seismic techniques in water, including seismic surveys in the marine environment
- an activity that is likely to have a significant impact on plants or animals.
A seismic survey carried out on land doesn't count as substantial disturbance of a mining site as long as it doesn't involve:
- land clearing or
- any other environmental impact.
To find out more, read regulation 233R of the Environment Protection Regulations 2020.
What you should do
If your proposed work program involves one or more of the above actions, you must apply for an environmental mining licence.
You may also need to undertake a formal environmental impact assessment process.
For advice on minimising the environmental impacts of exploration, mining and extractive activities, read the environmental advisory notes.