Mineral Resources Act 1989

Mine means to carry on an operation with a view to, or for the purpose of—

winning mineral from a place where it occurs; or

extracting mineral from its natural state; or

disposing of mineral in connection with, or waste substances resulting from, the winning or extraction.

For subsection (1), extracting includes the physical, chemical, electrical, magnetic or other way of separation of a mineral.

Extracting includes, for example, crushing, grinding, concentrating, screening, washing, jigging, tabling, electrowinning, solvent extraction electrowinning (SX–EW), heap leaching, flotation, fluidised bedding, carbon-in-leach (CIL) and carbon-in-pulp (CIP) processing.

However, extracting does not include—

a process in a smelter, refinery or anywhere else by which mineral is changed to another substance; or

testing or assaying small quantities of mineral in teaching institutions or laboratories, other than laboratories situated in the area of a mining lease; or

an activity, prescribed under a regulation, that is not directly associated with winning mineral from a place where it occurs.

For subsection (1), disposing includes, for example, the disposal of tailings and waste rock.

A regulation under subsection (4)(c) may prescribe an activity by reference to the quantities of minerals extracted or to any other specified circumstances.