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Would You Try Opening A Gold Mine In Australia?


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   Just thought i'd start a post about mining in Australia and what it's like compared to California. As some of us know, California is not mining friendly. I've actually had people say to me "Oh no, you're not one of those people are you?" Sort of makes you feel like a second class citizen. So how is it for the miners in Ausralia?

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I suspect the answer is the same for the US, it depends what state your in. In West OZ, mining is the backbone of the economy  wheras in our other states it competes with other industries and thus does not have the $ relevance. 

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7 minutes ago, Norvic said:

I suspect the answer is the same for the US, it depends what state your in. In West OZ, mining is the backbone of the economy  wheras in our other states it competes with other industries and thus does not have the $ relevance. 

I'm curious about the permitting in Australia & how rigorous it is.

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I learnt many years back that taking out mining claims was a red tape time consuming pain in the butt, plus gave poachers an exact location to search, as I have not needed to go any further than simply detect for gold I ceased interest in mining claims and since only seek property owners permission in conjunction with whatever States prospecting permit/ license/rights and prospect leaving only footsteps. Our states have a nominal annual fee for such, although WA when I was last there a Miners Right was perpetual, a bonus I have found property owners are far more likely to give their permission if they know you are not likely to file claims and are not in the business of selling claims they too are tired of poachers,

GM this has worked for me for 40 plus years of serious part time gold detecting.

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4 hours ago, Norvic said:

I learnt many years back that taking out mining claims was a red tape time consuming pain in the butt, plus gave poachers an exact location to search, as I have not needed to go any further than simply detect for gold I ceased interest in mining claims and since only seek property owners permission in conjunction with whatever States prospecting permit/ license/rights and prospect leaving only footsteps. Our states have a nominal annual fee for such, although WA when I was last there a Miners Right was perpetual, a bonus I have found property owners are far more likely to give their permission if they know you are not likely to file claims and are not in the business of selling claims they too are tired of poachers,

GM this has worked for me for 40 plus years of serious part time gold detecting.

Ditto........   Back in the early 1980s I took out a Claim as Norvic said I notified all the lazy detectorist were it was, because we had to put a public notice in the local paper. Before this the 4 corners of the pending claim had to have a peg with a application licence N° and date. Every thing that we did (hand tools) could be done with no claim (Miner's Right), or putting a bond down for restoration of the work which was refunded because we were good guys 😇 when the claim expired. The work we did was dig down nearly 2 ft. and work our way up the slope on bedrock. The size of the work was about 25 yd. by 15 yd. We used picks to break up the soil, and spread it out on a heavy duty tarp and detected it with the smallest coil we had. Once we had enough space behind us at the digging face we back filled by dragging the detected soil on the tarp and dumping it behind us all the way as we worked to the top of the slope until we reach exposed bedrock. Any tree that was in the dig area were left with their roots not disturbed. Not only all this could of been done without a claim we were burden with other constraints like fire equipment and water supply for it.

This was the ground before we worked it back in 1982. The guy in the second photo is is Carols brother who died back in 2004.

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Red tape, red tape and more red tape. And fighting others for the same ground aswell as fence jumpers. And long, and I mean LONG wait times for approvals. I know of a lease that’s been pegged and still waiting for approval with the application being lodged in 2014. It varies state by state mainly, this is only the experience I have of my own state.

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Small scale push and detect is very viable in WA and is relatively cheap. 
Pegging a lease is cheap as chips, under $1000 for 200 hectare. Put in a POW which I’d imagine is the same as your POO.
 

Usually takes well under 12 months, but as stated, while it’s pending it’s advertised on Tengraph and open to every man and his dog. That is not really a problem as it’s also open to you and you’re going to push it anyway to get hopefully what’s out of reach of ma and pa hobbiest.

 

I am continually amazed at people buying PL’s on FB and gumtree for ridiculous prices ie: $15000+ and most of these go up for sale only a few weeks after being granted.

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