Apply for a mineral lease for tourist fossicking

If you want to conduct tourist fossicking, you will need a mineral lease for tourist fossicking (MLTF).

Summary

An MLTF gives you the right to occupy the title area.

It also gives you exclusive rights to conduct all the following activities in the title area:

conduct commercial tours to undertake tourist fossicking in the title area
use only hand-held tools to facilitate fossicking
remove fossicked material from the title area
construct temporary infrastructure to facilitate fossicking tours.

A mineral lease for tourist fossicking is subject to the following conditions:

all activities are restricted to the natural surface of the land
the topsoil must not be disturbed to more than a maximum depth of 1 metre
no processing may be conducted in the title area
no blasting may be conducted in the title area
no residence or permanent infrastructure may be constructed in the title area.

Area covered by an MLTF

Up to 40 hectares.

Lease term

Up to 5 years.

Conditions

In addition to the conditions on mineral titles, you must also do all of the following:

provide annual reports about reserves and production to the Department of Mining and Energy between 1 July and 14 July every year
meet the terms of any contractual arrangements entered into about developing, mining and processing mineral deposits in the lease area
carry out work in a way that interferes as little as possible with the rights of other occupiers of land around the lease area.

How to apply

To apply, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Fill in the form and prepare supporting materials

Use this form to apply for a mineral lease for tourist fossicking.

Mineral lease for tourist fossicking (approved form 49) PDF (265.2 KB)
Mineral lease for tourist fossicking (approved form 49) DOCX (128.9 KB)

Step 2. Submit your application and pay the fee

To find out how much you must pay, read about rents, fees and other costs.

You must include the application fee when submitting your application.

After you apply

Find out how your application is assessed.

Process

Find out the grant process of an MLTF over:

Tell the landowner/manager

You must notify landowners when you apply for a mineral title and there are specific processes you must follow.

When you apply for any mineral title, you must tell each landowner affected by the application. You must do this within 14 days of submitting the application to the department.

Read more about notifying the landowner.