We are responsible for managing Alcoa`s mining and refining operations in the VA under 3 State Agreements. In accordance with Ministerial Declaration 728 issued by the Minister of the Environment in September 2006, the criteria for the completion of the Alcoa bauxite mine reclamation in the northern Jarrah Forest in the Darling Range must be revised. The Mining Exploration and Management Program Liaison Group, an inter-institutional group chaired by the Division, conducted the review in 2014. The revised completion criteria apply to rehabilitation, which was established from 2016 until they are replaced by future revisions to the criteria. The revised fencing criteria can be revised and are also available on the websites of Alcoa and the Department of Biodiversity, Nature Protection and Tourist Sites. The department is the designated spring agency for proposals for mining, oil, geothermal and carbon capture and storage. The department is responsible for the management of these mining titles and the maintenance of title registry systems (through Mineral Titles Online and Tengraph® Online), which provide up-to-date information on land availability and details on mining buildings in Western Australia. Yet new state agreements are now much rarer than in the 1960s and 1970s. A number of recent government agreements have been reached to authorize the construction of major railway lines – a circumvention necessary in light of the Public Works Act 1902 (AV), which provides that a railway can only be built under the supervision of special legislation.
The special legislation does not necessarily have to be done through a state agreement, but that is the approach that the VA government has taken in practice. The North West Shelf (Woodside) Agreement and the Railway and Port Agreement (The Pilbara Infrastructure Pty Ltd) are just two recent examples of agreements that have inserted local content commitments. The last state agreement to be amended by Parliament, the Northwest Gas Agreement, was 40 years old when it was amended in 2019. The main objective of this amendment was to extend the duration of the agreement so that operations could continue until 2071. However, the VA government took this opportunity to impose new obligations on the company by inserting clauses in “modern state agreements” requiring the implementation of local development plans and local participation in the project. Western Australian ores belong to the crown. Any person or company wishing to carry out exploration or mining activities must receive a mineral rental house from the department. Legal updates to the mining and construction sector The state agreements are not a “one-off approach” to resource development in the VA.
Although all agreements have similar provisions, they are negotiated on a case-by-case basis and, as such, have project-specific clauses. The Western Australian Geological Survey (GSWA) publishes state-of-the-art reports, maps and databases that document the geology and oil reserves of Western Australia. Higher levels of service will be made available for project proposals with more complex licensing requirements. Thus, the proposals for uranium mining are Level 3 projects – the highest level of service.