Outback land may not have attracted the same amount of attention as property in metropolitan and regional centres, but a long-running acquisition strategy by the state government has focused the minds of some in the mining game.
Outback land may not have attracted the same amount of attention as property in metropolitan and regional centres, but a long-running acquisition strategy by the state government has focused the minds of some in the mining game.
During the past 20 years, the Department of Environment and Conservation, or its predecessors, have acquired close to six million hectares of pastoral leases.
Most of that activity has been in the past 10 years and the majority of the land has been in the central parts of the state, from around the Goldfields and extending right up to the Pilbara.
The department confirmed it has acquired leases to broaden the area in its conservation reserve system.
According to the DEC, in 1998 the state government allocated $6.4 million to be spent over six years, a figure that was matched by the federal government.
Leases bought since the first funding ceased have been purchased with carryover funds from the original allocation, all of which has been committed.
Some 5.2 million ha of leases had been acquired by June 30 last year, with the latest figure understood to be more than 5.8 million ha.
More than 1,300 exploration and mining tenements which are on these leases could be affected.
A who’s who of Western Australia’s explorers and miners are listed as tenement holders, according to the Association of Mining & Exploration Companies, including giants like BHP Billiton Ltd, exploration specialists like Cazaly Resources Ltd and well known individual prospectors like Mark Creasy.
Despite the longevity of the acquisition program, the mining community is on edge because of concerns that the majority of the leased areas are set to be converted into conservation areas, which may change their terms of access, increase costs and prohibit some activities.
An expectation is that this will occur soon.
Department of Industry and Resources deputy director-general resources group, Roy Burton, confirmed more than five million ha of pastoral leases had been cancelled, and the DEC was seeking to change the status of the land to reflect its conservation intention.
Mr Burton said he expected the proposal to go before state cabinet soon, though subsequent processing of the changes could take some time.
He confirmed the status sought for the majority of the land would allow mining, though the conditions would be different from pastoral leases.
“A conservation park does allow for minerals exploration and production,” Mr Burton said.
But miners and explorers are concerned that the change could ultimately result in large tracts of land being locked away from exploration, even if the sought changes did not immediately have that affect.
They are worried the almost blanket changes mooted would make adding conditions or even putting big areas in higher status reserves, such as A-Class reserves where mining is not allowed under current state government policy, too easy in the future.
A spokesperson for WA Environment Minister David Templeman said these concerns were unfounded. “What they are saying is nothing more than speculation,” the spokesperson said.