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Those of you who have been here a while will already know of the incredible cautionary tale of me trying to peg a small miners claim on the Central Queensland gemfields. Of jumping through endless legal hoops and being relieved of thousands of dollars while still having nothing to show for it as I approach the three-year mark since applying for a prospectors permit.
Well here comes the next - and possibly final - sickening chapter in this sorry saga. I received a phone call yesterday from the Emerald office of the DMNR with whom my applications are lodged - "I have some bad news about your applications, we have rejected them on the grounds of environmental protection." At first I was too stunned to say anything, then my mental state caved in after three long years of being robbed and barstadized and I let fly with a tirade of abuse.
It's still unclear and the QSMA are looking into it for me but all I can think of is that during the extremely long wait, new environmental laws have been passed which have now been applied retrospectively to my applications.
When I applied for a prospectors permit over the area in question, I was officially approved and relieved of hundreds of dollars - I was not informed in writing or otherwise of the existence of special environmental no-go zones within a designated sapphire mining area.
With that approval, I then selected an area that met all the legal criteria at the time and applied for the right to peg the spot. My application to peg was officially approved and I was relieved of several thousand dollars (in total over time). At no stage was I ever informed in writing or otherwise that my application was on a special no-go zone.
Despite being submitted a full year before the expiry of the old native title agreement, it seems a year was not long enough for the DMNR to say yes or no - my claim was apparently at the approval stage when the existing native title agreement expired and a new one needed to be negotiated. This process has so far taken close to a year and a half and there is no time frame for any resolution. Until that time, no new claims can be granted regardless of what stage of progression they were at.
While I'm still not sure what has occurred, it seems special environmental protection zones called an ERE have been declared while I have been held in limbo. I can't find any information about them on the DMNR website, only passing mention in the sapphire miners journal. The fact that I was officially approved for the entire process barring the native title issue and never once informed that I was prospecting on and then pegging on land disqualified from such activities (inside a bloody designated mining and fossicking area!!!!) suggests to me that the ERE did not exist when I applied for and was approved for all the other stages and that I am the victim of retrospectively applied legislation. I would have thought such a thing to be constitutionally illegal.
There are several active mining claims and a machinery mining lease literally just metres away from my boundary - what special shrub or bug exists on my tiny patch that does not exist a few metres away?
More information will come to light but whatever you do, DO NOT PEG A SMALL MINERS CLAIM IN QUEENSLAND. It may well turn out to be the worst experience of your life.
Well here comes the next - and possibly final - sickening chapter in this sorry saga. I received a phone call yesterday from the Emerald office of the DMNR with whom my applications are lodged - "I have some bad news about your applications, we have rejected them on the grounds of environmental protection." At first I was too stunned to say anything, then my mental state caved in after three long years of being robbed and barstadized and I let fly with a tirade of abuse.
It's still unclear and the QSMA are looking into it for me but all I can think of is that during the extremely long wait, new environmental laws have been passed which have now been applied retrospectively to my applications.
When I applied for a prospectors permit over the area in question, I was officially approved and relieved of hundreds of dollars - I was not informed in writing or otherwise of the existence of special environmental no-go zones within a designated sapphire mining area.
With that approval, I then selected an area that met all the legal criteria at the time and applied for the right to peg the spot. My application to peg was officially approved and I was relieved of several thousand dollars (in total over time). At no stage was I ever informed in writing or otherwise that my application was on a special no-go zone.
Despite being submitted a full year before the expiry of the old native title agreement, it seems a year was not long enough for the DMNR to say yes or no - my claim was apparently at the approval stage when the existing native title agreement expired and a new one needed to be negotiated. This process has so far taken close to a year and a half and there is no time frame for any resolution. Until that time, no new claims can be granted regardless of what stage of progression they were at.
While I'm still not sure what has occurred, it seems special environmental protection zones called an ERE have been declared while I have been held in limbo. I can't find any information about them on the DMNR website, only passing mention in the sapphire miners journal. The fact that I was officially approved for the entire process barring the native title issue and never once informed that I was prospecting on and then pegging on land disqualified from such activities (inside a bloody designated mining and fossicking area!!!!) suggests to me that the ERE did not exist when I applied for and was approved for all the other stages and that I am the victim of retrospectively applied legislation. I would have thought such a thing to be constitutionally illegal.
There are several active mining claims and a machinery mining lease literally just metres away from my boundary - what special shrub or bug exists on my tiny patch that does not exist a few metres away?
More information will come to light but whatever you do, DO NOT PEG A SMALL MINERS CLAIM IN QUEENSLAND. It may well turn out to be the worst experience of your life.