The main review points that I see will impact gold dredging and grass roots prospecting are:
- Review of the current CMA Statement: The current Government has made it clear they want to make a fundamental shift away from the current legislation to that which promotes a “sustainable and inclusive economy”. They have already begun phasing out offshore Oil and Gas, and made a statement that there will be “no new mines on conservation land”.
Personally I have no problem with moving towards a “sustainable and inclusive economy” but the current government appears to be proposing this shift with a large dose of ignorance and hypocrisy. As they have yet to address that the impact of this shift, will drive demand for elements that are critical for building “green” technology, and currently these all come from the earth and are all mined.
The bigger picture here is that if the current CMA statement is changed to something more “green” or restrictive, then future extraction operations could well be stifled because they do not “align” with the purpose of the CMA.
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Community participation - Hard to say what this will finally look like, but there is some discussion around enabling the public to review and oppose all permit applications (inc dredging) during the initial application phase.
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Compliance and Technical amendments - Many of these have been on the cards for some time and in my view will mostly benefit the industry.