The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies has expressed concerns about Western Australian Government proposals to convert more than 5.5 million hectares of pastoral lease to parks and reserves.
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies has expressed concerns about Western Australian Government proposals to convert more than 5.5 million hectares of pastoral lease to parks and reserves.
The full text of a group announcement is pasted below
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies has expressed concerns about Western Australian Government proposals to convert more than 5.5 million hectares of pastoral lease to parks and reserves.
AMEC's Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Mr Ian Loftus, said, "the State Government has plans to convert around 54 of these pastoral leases, or parts of pastoral leases, into parks and reserves within its conservation estate."
He added, "whilst some parts of this land undoubtedly represent particularly high levels of conservation value and are deserving of the high level of protection, much of the land has been cleared and grazed since early last century and has relatively low levels of conservation value."
"The 'default' classification level for most of the land is 'Conservation Park' which adds significant hurdles to mining and exploration without any additional level of environmental protection - this land is already owned by the State and subject to rigorous native vegetation and other environmental controls."
"One of the most concerning things about Conservation Park status is that it has the potential to significantly impact the potential reserves, resources and other assets of tenement holders," said Mr Loftus.
Mr Loftus said, "there are many hundreds of individual mining tenements with literally dozens of tenement holders affected by this move. Many of the tenement holders are ASX-listed companies, and they have stringent information disclosure obligations. The impact on this State's reputation as a stable place in which to invest could be shaken severely if every one of those ASX-listed companies told the market that the potential future earning potential of each company could be shot-down by the administrative action of a State Government agency."
"And less investment will mean fewer jobs, a reduction in the economic viability of rural and regional communities, less export income for the State, and less taxes and fees such as shire rates, royalties, income tax, GST and payroll taxes to all three levels of Government."
"This looks like a great opportunity for Premier Carpenter to take a leadership position and act decisively in the interests of everybody in this State so that these moves don't damage this State's reputation", concluded Mr Loftus, "and at the very least we'd like to see a more open and transparent process put in place so the whole community get a chance to have a say."
