Starting My Own Mining Lease QLD

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BrisJoe

BrisJoe

Joe
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
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Location
Moranbah, QLD
Just wondering if anybody can give me some advice on what would be required to start my own small scale mining operations?

If I was to purchase a sizable block of land in say, Cleremont CQ which is a rich gold grounds, what would be the process to say set up my own gold mine there?
Just me and my family working it on my off week from my work at Peak Downs.

Just small scale, running under my own ming lease, with an excavator, loader as my main equipment, and then a viber/trommel/giant sluice box setup wash plant.

I know a few of you guys run your own setups like this, so was just wondering how much red tape and such there is for a hobby mine. Things like public approval, EIS, etcetc
Because if I can find a clear path through the government BS with starting a mini mine, then I can get around to finding a sizable property that has good reserves on it that isn't already got a lease on it.

And then somehow, SOMEHOW convince the wife to A, move to a rural area B, convince her to let me start a mine on our new large rural property C, somehow get her approval to buy or lease earthmoving machinery and D, get her to agree to work the mine with me lol
 
Proberally not, just the covincing the missus will require more kneeling and expensive dinners and begging. At lest the gumbyment keeps it as simple as thousands of pages of forms.
 
My brother in law was looking into a similar thing here in NSW but all the restrictions and legalities put a stop to it. I believe they required an appointed OHS officer, a fully qualified mining manager, rehabilitation plan, insurances etc etc. And this was just to a run a small weekend operation.

Probably best to get some test drilling done to ensure the ground is profitable before doing anything else.
 
Yeah that was the plan to test drill holes as a condition of pre sale on the land before I put any money down.

What if I just went ahead with pegging out my claim, and then proceed to process it?
Would theu send inspectors out for joe bloggs backyard claim to see if I was using a sluice box not a wash plant and excavator?

Otherwise I'll just grade the paddocks and hit them up with a MD lol
 
I can use my brother as mining engineer, do they have to be present at the mine? Because atm he is a director of a super mine in Kazakhstan.
 
Yeah I believe the mine manager has to be present during operation.
 
No need to purchase the land, you don't have to own the land you need to have the mining lease.
I don't like your chances of finding ground that isn't already pegged at Clermont.
Drilling is not really worth it if your looking for alluvial because of inconsistent grades. Also drilling is not cheap and would probably cost more than the actual pegging of the lease.
You can get your mine managers ticket by doing a two day course, Lightning Ridge is the closest place to Brisbane that run them that I know of.
With the sort of setup you are talking about its going to cost a lot more than you will ever recover on weekend trips.
Not trying to discourage you, just saying my opinion.

Goodluck with it.

DD
 
Just some quick Q's about settinf up my own mining operation in Qld.

The following are the rules for small scale mining:

Mining claims are restricted to hand-mining activities and the use of some light equipment.

You are not allowed to use the following heavy machinery under a mining claim:

excavation equipment such as bobcats, excavators and bulldozers

mining machinery including continuous miners, draglines and end-loaders

light transport infrastructure, such as cranes, monorails and cars

dredging equipment and vehicle-mounted drills.
Click to expand...

So if I want to run a backhoe and trommel screen, magnetic seperator and jigs to dig and extract, what style of mining would I apply my Minging Lease, if these pieces of machinery are excluded from the term "Small Scale mining"?

Because under those rules, I am limited to a shovel and metal detector/sluice/pans. I can't even use a grader or ripper to churn the top layer of soil after I have spent 6 mths grid lining the 1 Ha lease with my metal detector.

As I wish to setup up a hobby mine to run on the side, as I only work 6 mths of the year (gotta love working in the big mines :cool: ) and would rather invest in a gold operation then fast cars and boats and jetskis and motorbikes like everybody else in the mines does. At least I can then get some sort of semi profitable operation running to which I can pass to my kids when I'm too old to run things .
 
Haha, it ain't like what it was before to "know somebody" to get in. They cut all of that out, now everybody has to go through the full screening process.

I am only an apprentice, and I was the lucky 1's in the final pick out for 3800 applicants across the 4 different trades on offer for the 1 mine. And this I had to go through a 8mth process from submission to the final ok.
I had to spend my own money in flights up the Moranbah for interviews and group testing and do 2 rounds of medical tests and 3 rounds of theory and psychological testing.
All for an apprenticeship which I have to move to Moranbah and rent my own house to live local at my own costs. It isn't an easy run being an apprentice, I'm just lucky that they are paying me a decent amount of money as an apprentice :D Even for TAFE I have to drive 2.5hrs each way to Emerald for the 4 week blocks and pay for my own motel there during the week :eek:

Oh well it now gives me a chance to finally be in a position to buy my own house within the next 4years and also look at funing my own hobby mine out somewhere like Cleremont if I can find a patch that doesn't already have a EPM on it or buy out a lease.
 
Joe, you are looking at a CLAIM, not a LEASE, you can do what you want on a lease, the claims are restricted in both size and what you can use on them. you have obviously been looking at the Mines.gov.qld web site, there is more info on leases there if you look.

The site is pretty hard to navigate but you will find it
 
I think you got the process a bit backwards mate. You need to find some ground first then work out how your going to process it.
All areas are different and will require different gear and different mining techniques. Vacant ground is very hard to find and ground that is vacant is usually for a reason i.e no gold or too hard to get at. If your going to buy a lease you also need to be very careful as no one sells ground that has easy gold lying around.
Most of the equipment you mentioned would be useless at Clermont as you wouldn't get enough water to run it out there. Also I don't know how much detecting you have done before, but it doesn't take no where near 6 months to detect 1 hectare it would be closer to 6 days.
I'm not trying to discourage you from it all, as mining is a great lifestyle. But you really need to get out there and do some prospecting for good ground before planning all this other stuff.

DD
 
Diggerdude said:
I think you got the process a bit backwards mate. You need to find some ground first then work out how your going to process it.
All areas are different and will require different gear and different mining techniques. Vacant ground is very hard to find and ground that is vacant is usually for a reason i.e no gold or too hard to get at. If your going to buy a lease you also need to be very careful as no one sells ground that has easy gold lying around.
Most of the equipment you mentioned would be useless at Clermont as you wouldn't get enough water to run it out there. Also I don't know how much detecting you have done before, but it doesn't take no where near 6 months to detect 1 hectare it would be closer to 6 days.
I'm not trying to discourage you from it all, as mining is a great lifestyle. But you really need to get out there and do some prospecting for good ground before planning all this other stuff.

DD
Click to expand...
DD, I think you have made a good point , sound like a bit more research needs to be done :8 I believe that you are prospecting full time :D that must be great , there is so much to learn about the different type of ground bases and lease arrangements :p
 

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