Mines will now be obliged to comply with the Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2008.

An industry spokesperson who did not want to be named told MiningNewsPremium.net the Queensland mining industry is comfortable with the changes and that most of the mines involved will not need to change their operations because their existing methods are already aligned with modern standards.

“The majority of the mines involved are already operating along the same lines that other, more recently commissioned operations are operating,” he said.

“The most substantial work is underway at Xstrata at Mount Isa, for emissions. There’s a lot of plant that has been there for quite a long time, and they’re spending a couple of hundred million.”

As well as Mount Isa, the other eight sites covered under the new Bill are: Mount Isa, Weipa, Peak Downs, Goonyella, Norwich Park (near Dysart), Saraji (near Moranbah), Moura, Greenvale and Ely (near Weipa).

The spokesman said two of the mines – Greenvale and Ely – are not affected by the new legislation because they are not operating.

“The Bowen Basin and the export coal industry of Queensland is still very young; it only goes back 40 years. The first mine on a large scale was the Blackwater opencut operation,” he said.

“It (the coal resource) has been known about for a long time, but I think it was the commitment to realise the value of the resource only goes back that far.”

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said the move was a positive step in the interests of sustainable development.

“Certainly, the development of major export mines at Mount Isa and Weipa, along with the state's multi-billion dollar coal industry in the Bowen Basin, would have been far more problematic without this special legislative support covering matters like water, roads and the interface with local government, as well as environmental conditions,” Roche said.

“However, there is no excuse to hang on to environmental regulations framed decades ago when standards were lower than they are today.”

Roche said current operations at the sites had either met or, in the case of Mount Isa Mines, are moving rapidly towards complying with current environmental performance standards.

Queensland’s Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Andrew McNamara said the Bill would ensure these mines operate under the same environmental standards that apply to the other 1200 mines throughout Queensland.

But he said that the application of contemporary environmental standards would not disadvantage the mining companies involved.

“This Bill makes it possible for us to benefit from the use of our natural resources as well as protect the environment on all mining sites in Queensland,” McNamara said.

“The special agreement Acts are unique to each site, and cover all issues relating to the carrying out of mining activities including some environmental requirements.

“The Acts were drafted at a time when the economic conditions were different, and when the government of the day felt that it needed to give greater certainty to the mining companies, given the scale of capital investment the mines required.

“However, over the last 50 years, the demand for minerals and the scale of mining operations has increased world wide. Simultaneously, the community’s understanding of environmental issues has increased,” McNamara said.

In parliament, McNamara said the unanimous support of the Bill was recognition that on all sides of politics we now expect higher standards from all operations.

“A proper level playing field has now been created. The special agreement act mines coming under the same supervision as the other 1700 mines in Queensland is a very worthy reform,” he said.

McNamara said the Bill does not affect any other aspects of the special agreement Acts, and will not affect the right to mine, and that minesites would have three years to make the transition to the new arrangements.