Are your Mining Tenements at Risk?

Just how secure are your mining tenements? Could they be at risk of being withdrawn, denied, or rejected when you go to renew them?

Security of mining tenements is an essential ingredient for successful mining or exploration. It reduces the risk of your mining or exploration company expending effort in the wrong direction, in legal proceedings or Warden’s court action, and provides the level of confidence that is necessary to finance a mining or exploration project.

Your mining tenement may be at risk if:

• Failure to demonstrate due diligence in the meeting of your obligations
• Failure follows the terms set out in your specific agreement
• Failure to accurately document and report upon your activities as required by the regulatory processes in your local jurisdiction
• A lack of the necessary relationships to properly plan and carry out your requirements specified under your agreement
• Failure to submit the necessary paperwork in time increases the risk that the tenement or mining, or exploration licence will lapse, and a competitor will apply for mining leases in your operating area
• Failure to meet your obligations due to recordkeeping or administrative errors due to the use of systems that do not adequately safeguard the necessary processes
• Failure to submit the necessary reporting alongside your applications or after you have been granted the tenement, thereby failing to prepare and lodge statutory reports
• Failure to pay a fine due to an oversight or miscommunication
• Failure to comply with the Mining Act during the tenement application process, resulting in the tenement being legally void or invalid
• Failure to meet minimum annual expenditure commitments, or to apply for expenditure exemptions to cover this
• Failure to adequately consult stakeholders, such as Indigenous landowners or private property owners
• Failure to meet your environmental obligations such as environmental reporting
• Failure to establish a geologically sound exploration program increases the risk of forfeiture
• Purchase of a tenement without having undertaken the necessary research in advance to determine that it is in good standing and will be a secure prospect into the future.

How to reduce the risks to your mining tenure

As tenements are acquired, the expectations of the regulators and legal system are that your company will ensure it allocates sufficient resources to tenement management. If you do not commit adequate resources to tenement management as you grow, due to an inadvisable business oversight or worse, an attempt to reduce expenses, then you will expose yourself to the risk and put yourself in an unsympathetic position.

Fundamental to the security of tenure or tenement is the ability to manage your tenements properly, to navigate the frameworks by which they are managed, to fully understand the complex rules and regulations and agreements that govern tenements, to appreciate and be able to carry out your reporting obligations and to commit the needful quantity of resources to tenement management.

For these reasons, many mining and resource companies will decide to use the services of a tenement management company to help them achieve tenement security and reduce the risk to their tenement. So, how exactly can tenement consultants help to increase the security of your tenements? Below are just a few of the services offered by a tenement consultant like Hetherington:

• Tenement management and acquisition
• Monitoring prospective ground and applying for tenure throughout Australia and overseas
• Preparation and lodgement of applications for grant and renewal
• Preparation of compliant exploration programs
• Preparation, advice, and coordination of joint venture agreements
• Strategic advice in relation to tenement acquisitions and associated sale agreements
• Expert strategic advice on key approvals and security of tenure under mining, environmental, and land use laws
• Preparation of submissions to Government departments regarding conditions of title
• Assistance with the preparation and lodgement of statutory reports
• Tenement auditing and due diligence
• Negotiation of access and compensation with Government, private and Indigenous landowners

There are many reasons to outsource your tenement management. Laws vary by jurisdiction, as do the regulatory mechanisms in place to enforce them, and it can be hard for an exploration and mining company to have the in-house resources to handle this. It can take an expert to navigate these complexities while attaining the required level of tenement security.

Risk management of mining tenements

Hetherington can assist with more than tenement compliance. We can also assist with mine work health and safety and your program of work, and as mining lawyers and environmental consultants.

Our in-depth knowledge of environmental and mining law, our expertise in the mining and resources sector, and our long track record of supporting exploration and mining companies to achieve their goals positions Hetherington as the tenement consultant of choice for the Australian mining and resources sector.

To find out more about our tenement management and other services, browse our website or contact our team at your local office.