The Department for Energy and Mining, through the Mineral Resources Division (MRD), is the state government agency responsible for the administration, management and regulation of South Australia’s mineral resources industry. To achieve this, MRD is responsible for administering the state’s exploration and mining legislation on behalf of the Minister for Energy and Mining. This legislation governs the access to land for, and regulation of, exploration and production activities for mineral and quarrying resources in South Australia, as well as environmental management of the industry. This annual mineral resources regulation report for 2017 summarises the regulatory performance of the state’s mineral exploration, mining and quarrying industries, providing relevant indicators of how companies are meeting their compliance obligations to mitigate and manage genuine risks, and the regulatory, surveillance and compliance activities undertaken by MRD. The report aligns with the regulatory principles set out in MRD’s Regulating mineral exploration and mining in South Australia: setting the framework for best practice regulation (PDF, 241 kB), and is described in Section 2 of this report. Mineral tenements statistics: In 2017, 118 exploration release areas (ERAs) were open for application, approximately 19% less than in 2016. Forty-one ERA applications were received (24% more than in 2016). At 31 December 2017, 2,215 mineral tenements and 224 private mines were held (down from 2,262 and 232 respectively at the end of 2016). See Section 3 for details. Exploration and mining assessments: During 2017, 636 exploration-related assessments were completed. The largest volume was attributed to exploration licence assessments (564), followed by exploration work program assessments (72). In 2017, 65 mining assessments were completed, the largest volumes being for operational approvals (i.e. extractive minerals PEPRs, 24; and mineral PEPRs 19). Mineral lease mining proposals (8) and extractive minerals lease mining proposals (6) were a smaller contribution, but in most cases involved more complexity, as the main initial tenement assessment step. Six miscellaneous purposes licence management plans and two retention lease application assessments were also completed. See Sections 3.2.3 and 3.2.4 for details. Field inspections: A total of 609 exploration and mining inspections were completed in 2017. Of these, 65% were associated with extractive minerals operations (i.e. extractive minerals leases and private mines), which range from metropolitan hard rock quarries to low-risk, small sand mining operations. See Section 3.2.5.2 for details. Complaints and incidents: Of the complaints received by MRD in 2017, blasting (35%), dust (26%) and noise (7%) were the most common complaint types for mining. The most common incident types for mining operations in 2017 were spills (55%), dust (23%) and blasting (9%). See Section 3.2.5.3 for details. Opal mining: At 31 December 2017 there were 456 opal mining tenements within the Coober Pedy, Andamooka, Stuart Creek and Mintabie precious stones fields. This reflects a 16% increase in opal mining tenements from 2016. Revenue from opal mining fees totalled $145,701 in 2017, an increase of 13.5% from 2016. A total of 505 precious stones prospecting permits were issued in 2017, a 12% increase from 2016. During 2017, 1,129 inspections were carried out across the four opal fields. See Section 3.2.10 for details. Resource royalties: In 2017 mineral production in South Australia was reported by 305 mineral producers, contributing $148.2 million of mining royalty revenue. In 2017 the royalty audit compliance program audited 98% of mineral royalty revenue and recovered $3.5 million in mining royalty revenue. See Section 4 for details. Legislation, regulation policy and programs: In 2017, MRD conducted the Leading Practice Mining Acts Review, the most comprehensive review of the Mining Act, Opal Mining Act and Mines and Works Inspection Act ever undertaken. MRD engaged with more than 1,700 stakeholders, including meeting with over 70 organisations and 500 individuals in over 40 regional, community and ‘open house’ meetings. This resulted in 82 recommendations for changes to the law forwarded to the Minister. Other major publication releases in 2017 include the inaugural South Australian Multiple Land Use Framework, the first of its kind to be released by an Australian state or territory, and a review of air quality impacts and regulation in the South Australian mining and extractives industry. Section 5 provides further details on these and other legislation, regulatory policy initiatives and programs.