Environment Protection Legislation Amendment (Mining) Bill 2023

Feedback has now closed on draft legislation to improve the Territory’s environmental management of mining activities.

Consultation summary report available

The department has completed the public consultation on the Environment Protection Legislation (Mining) Amendment Bill 2023.

A total of 33 submissions were received from a variety of stakeholders, including individual members of the public, environment and industry groups, mining companies, industry associations, land councils and special interest groups.

The summary of feedback report is available in the Consultation documents links.

The department thanks all those stakeholders who have contributed their time and effort in providing submissions.

Background

The Northern Territory (NT) Government has committed to a range of environmental regulatory reforms to improve investor confidence, build community trust and improve environmental outcomes.

In September 2019, the first stage of reforms was enacted with the passing of the Environment Protection Act 2019 (EP Act) which introduced improvements to the environmental impact assessment and approval process for the NT.

This stage of reforms is focused on the management of mining activities in the NT. Under these reforms, responsibility for the environmental regulation of mining will be transferred to the EP Act, which is administered by the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security (DEPWS) and the Mining Management Act 2001, which is administered by the Department of Industry Tourism and Trade (DITT), will be repealed.

The NT’s mineral titling processes and management and remediation of legacy mines will continue to be undertaken by DITT.

Environment Protection Legislation Amendment (Mining) Bill

DEPWS has released the Environment Protection Legislation Amendment (Mining) Bill 2023 (draft Mining Bill) for public consultation.

The draft Mining Bill:

• Introduces a new, three tier, licensing system to manage mining activities, underpinned by general environmental duties.
• Extends existing compliance and enforcement powers under the EP Act to ensure these apply to mining activities.
• Makes consequential amendments to the Mineral Titles Act 2010 to improve the ‘fit and proper’ person test under that Act and to introduce a ‘notice to commence or continue activities’ following payment of the mining security.

The proposed model for managing mining activities is described in the Regulation of mining activities reform summary.

The draft Mining Bill can be accessed the documents list on this page.

DEPWS has prepared a number of factsheets to assist you in reviewing the draft Mining Bill which are available to download from the documents list.

DITT has also released draft legislation for comment. The Legacy Mines Remediation Bill 2023 will introduce new legislation to contemporise the way legacy mines and legacy mine features are managed in the Territory. The Legacy Mines Remediation Bill 2023 can be accessed by visiting the Legacy Mines Have Your Say page.

The outcomes of previous consultation activities relating to these reforms can be found on the DEPWS Environmental regulatory reform program website.

Have your say - Consultation closed

DEPWS is calling for submissions on the draft Mining Bill. Feedback provided during this consultation will be collated and provided to the project team to inform the final drafting of the Bill.

The closing date for submissions is 4pm Monday 18 September 2023.

A submission does not have to address all of the matters contained in the draft Mining Bill.

Electronic copies of submissions are preferred.

Please be aware that unless we are advised otherwise, all written comments will be treated as public documents and may be published on this website, the DEPWS website or cited in any documents we prepare. If you do not wish for your comments to be made public, please identify this clearly in any written correspondence you provide.

Please email your submission to environment.policy@nt.gov.au or post to

Environment Policy
Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security
GPO Box 3675
DARWIN NT 0801