SA Prospecting/fossicking on state/Crown land in South Australia

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I have been reading the FAQ's for Fossicking and Prospecting in South Australia and have a question to ask in regards to the following:

"Can I sell any of the minerals I collect from fossicking?

All minerals collected through fossicking are not to be sold or utilised for any commercial or industrial purpose. They may be collected for your own personal collection. "

From this I read it as we are not allowed to sell any of the gold we find, if we are doing it for a commercial or industrial purpose. However I am unsure if that means I am not allowed to sell, for example, 5g of gold chips I have panned. This might seem obvious to some, but I'm just being cautious. Am I to only ever keep my finds or am I allowed to sell them?
 
Hi Crows,

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Probably another "grey area" technicality ruling that is becoming all too common today.

We have a similar ruling here with opal fossicking. You can only take so much per day etc. But it's never been questioned as far as I know? -Even though there's been some very good, big dollar finds by people fossicking here over the years that far exceed those rulings in every manner possible.

If you were challenged then the 'maybes' come into play also when it comes to your gold: Maybe it's been in your family for generations (before the rulings were even made). Maybe you found it in another state or country (though it can be chemically traced at times). Maybe it was given to you as a gift. etc. etc. Who would police that in reality?

Worse comes to worse you could always have it refined into a 5g ingot of 9999 Bullion. :D

Personally, I'll always do as I please with my gold finds as I've done the work by hand following the prospecting laws and sought it in a legal manner. I'm certain those sentiments are shared by most forum members.

Kindest regards,
Shauno.
 
Hi Shauno,

Cheers for the reply. I was thinking the same thing, but was being cautious as I don't want to get in the deep end!

It seems almost as if this rule was written to be one of those rules where it will never be enforced, unless they actually want what you found. E.G you find a huge 600 ounce slab of the yellow stuff and the state decides it's such a rarity it'll be a great attraction for tourism, so they take it from you by enforcing this "grey area" ruling in their favour. Of course we'll never know this until it actually happens.

I haven't even started my gold hunting yet as I have been so busy! I'll be out there within a month though, when things quieten down. I will probably be one of those people who hoard their finds anyway, I doubt I'll find much! If I could fill a vial over the years I'd be one happy man =)
 
Hello from the Adelaide Hills.

Just to pass on some information from a series of random people I met yesterday, all of them related to mining policy in SA.

First the Liberal candidate for Heysen knocked on my door asking for my support in the upcoming elections. He wondered if there were any particular issues that I'd like to see addressed. I talked to him about the over-restrictive control of state/Crown land for prospecting and fossicking purposes in the Adelaide Hills. It may have just been political spiel, but he assured me that this is an area (the progressive opening up of more state land for recreational purposes) that he is actively pursuing. He took my contact details and promised to keep me updated. I'll post if I hear anything.

Then I happened to get the manager of the Labour party's election campaign in my car (I drive part-time), and immediately afterwards the legal manager of the South Australian mining department in my car, so I got the chance to have lengthy discussions with both of them.

The legal manager was very helpful. According to him, the 1971 Mining Act does not prevent prospecting or fossicking on any Crown/state land; in fact everyone has the right to do so. The real obstacle is the Environment Protection Act; the minister of that department has the power to restrict access to their land even though we would legally be allowed to prospect on the land if we could gain access to it. The Environment Act usurps the Mining Act in this instance, mostly for reasons of duty of care.

He (and, in his opinion, everyone else in the mining department) was in full support of allowing prospecting on land that is currently locked up. His advice was that we write to the Minister for the Environment, after the state elections, and put forward our reasons why access to the land should be granted. He also thought that it would be helpful to write to the minister for heritage zoning; the benefits of finding relics that could be displayed in local historical museums would be one good justification for searching in these areas.

He put forth the idea of introducing a licensing scheme like that of Victoria, whereby we indemnify the department for the environment for any injuries that we may sustain while prospecting, and may include an agreement that the prospecting licence allows the transfer of ownership of any finds from the Crown to the individual.

A group letter from a proper association (i.e. official metal detecting club) would be most effective method, especially immediately after the elections when the politicians are looking to make their mark and introduce popular reforms. I said that the letter might be signed by only 100 people but he thought that 100 people would be more than enough to get things happening.

shmiff
 
+1 for me..... Im sick of getting knocked back every time I try asking for access.
There are a few detecting clubs in Adelaide that would support this cause.
For a newbie on here, I applaud your enthusiasm shmiffy, keep it goin...... :Y:
 
I'll do what I can, though I'm so new that I don't even have a metal detector yet. Which are the big clubs in SA? If we could draft a letter and send it from all of them, signed by all members, that would be good. Individuals could also email the relevant ministers. Let's see who gets the elected positions.

shmiff
 
Dewalt said:
I am actually in the process of buying land in Victoria just so I can go for weekends and go detecting. That is how sad it is in this state in relation to detecting.

Funnily enough, the legal manager of the mining department mentioned that we could band together and purchase a mining lease in South Australia, and be free to prospect to our hearts' content (and also keep anything we find) in our little rectangle, but unfortunately we might not be allowed to go onto our leased land due to the EPA.

A few terms come to mind.

shmiff
 
shmiff said:
Dewalt said:
I am actually in the process of buying land in Victoria just so I can go for weekends and go detecting. That is how sad it is in this state in relation to detecting.

Funnily enough, the legal manager of the mining department mentioned that we could band together and purchase a mining lease in South Australia, and be free to prospect to our hearts' content (and also keep anything we find) in our little rectangle, but unfortunately we might not be allowed to go onto our leased land due to the EPA.

A few terms come to mind.

shmiff
60k sqr kilometers ?
Would be nice.

EPA ?
Please Explain.
 
The Environment Protection Act, overseen by the Department for the Environment, with the Minister for the Environment at the helm. From what I can gather, the Department for the Environment can restrict access to any state land, for whatever reason they want (like liability concerns) even if the Mining Act legally allows the public to prospect there. The issue is not that we're not allowed to metal detect on this land - it's that we're not allowed to access the land. I'm still waiting to hear which clubs I should work with to try to get this reformed. Has anyone approached the Minister for the Environment about this before? The situation in Victoria is a fine precedent and demonstrably workable system, so it shouldn't be too much problem to introduce something similar here in SA.

Meanwhile I have a couple of questions.

1. From the government website:

Do I need a Miner's Right to go fossicking?
No permit is required to fossick within South Australia. However, you must obtain prior permission from landowners before entering their property.

Can I sell any of the minerals I collect from fossicking?
All minerals collected through fossicking are not to be sold or utilised for any commercial or industrial purpose. They may be collected for your own personal collection.

Who owns the minerals in the ground?
All minerals are the property of the Crown in South Australia.

Does this mean that any minerals (including gold) that I find on private land (i.e. even in my own garden) do not belong to me?!

2. Also from the government website:

Fossicking and prospecting are not permitted within National Parks, Conservation Parks and Forest Reserves.

There's no mention of beaches, and according to the nice man at Miners Den, there are no restrictions preventing metal detecting on any South Australian beaches - is this correct? There's also no mention of parks, and I read an article about a metal detectorist called Mark Williams who frequently detects in Adelaide parks, including the parklands within the V8 Supercar circuit, Bonython Park and wherever the WOMADelaide music festival is held - is this correct? Are there any restrictions on urban parks?

shmiff
 
I can see you've bolded the tricky grey areas,you should forward those questions to the dept,I can kinda answer the 2nd part in that it's council & groundskeeper dependent.Heaps do the park and I don't see any issue if you're neat and clean,but also obey instruction to move on if you're told by an authority.

Also bear in mind that can change if some doof decides to mess it up with bad digging etc.

I sent some emails a while back asking for clarification on a few issues.

Basically I got told if i want to do stuff and sell it,its a mineral claim,and to go peg one.

The clarification I wanted was about pegging over an old mine,and also about multiple property boundaries and said costs.
 
shmiff said:
Does this mean that any minerals (including gold) that I find on private land (i.e. even in my own garden) do not belong to me?!

That's precisely what it means.

The differences between South Australia and Victoria are largely historic.

In Victoria most of the miner's rights (prospector's rights) come from the history of push back by miners against the state in the 1850s & 1860s.

In South Australia there wasn't that historic background to mineral rights and mineral rights have always been associated with claims, mining license and royalty systems. Some of this history can also be traced back to the opal mining boom which led to a very different legislative landscape when it comes to mining.

There are many vested interests in South Australia when it comes to prospecting and the rights of prospectors. None of these vested interests are favourable to the prospecting community.
 
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