Quarterly figures reflect WA’s push to improve approvals system

The use of new technology has been identified by the Western Australian state government as a major contributor to the significant turnaround in approvals for the first quarter of 2011.

The WA government has been eager to improve its mining approvals processes to meet the growth of applications, especially those in the on-line category.

On-line applications have jumped from 10 per cent to 26 per cent in the month following the recent launch of a new electronic lodgement system.

“The ability to lodge programs of work (POW) and mining proposals online was made available in August 2010,” Western Australian minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore said.

“By March 2011 there were more POW’s lodged online than paper lodgements. Although industry exploration activity increased in the first quarter of 2011, reforms were implemented and consequently, flexibility and timeliness improved.

“Online submissions require a defined quality standard and higher quality submissions result in significantly less approval timelines.

“WA resources industry activity occurs mostly in regional and remote areas – so making lodgement processes more accessible to those areas has obviously made a big difference to mining companies.”

The latest government data shows tenement applications jumped from seven per cent to 26 per cent using online lodgement.

In the first quarter of 2011, 92 per cent of the 570 exploration licences lodged were finalised within the timeline target and 96 per cent of programs of work were finalised within 30 business days.

Of the 72 petroleum environmental plans, 96 per cent were finalised within the timeline target while 75 per cent of petroleum wells were finalised within 40 business days.

“Information can now be streamed to computers and hand-held devices such as phones and it is interesting to note that 22 per cent of all electronic lodgements were outside core business times,” Moore said.