Western Australian Consolidated Acts

MINES SAFETY AND INSPECTION ACT 1994 - SECT 32

32 .         Principal employer, duties of for new mines

        (1)         Before mining operations begin at a mine, the name and address of the principal employer at the mine must be provided in writing to the district inspector for the region where the mine is situated.

        (1a)         If mining operations begin at a mine and subsection (1) has not been complied with, an offence against subsection (1) is committed by the person who the State mining engineer determines to have been the principal employer at the mine when the mining operations began.

        (1b)         In proceedings against a person under subsection (1a) it is a defence if the person proves that there were no reasonable grounds for the State mining engineer’s determination that the person was the principal employer at the mine when the mining operations began.

        (2)         The principal employer at a mine must make such financial and other provisions as are necessary to ensure, so far as is practicable, that the mine is planned, laid out, managed, and worked in accordance with relevant statutory provisions; and the imposition of a duty by this Act on some other person does not derogate from the duties imposed on principal employers by this section.

        (3)         A principal employer may be an individual, a corporation, a partnership, or a syndicate or other association of persons.

        (4)         If mining operations are to be carried out by a syndicate or other association of persons in such a way that no person is employed at the mine, the name and address of an entity, partnership, or person who is to assume the duties and responsibilities of principal employer in respect of those mining operations must be provided in writing, before mining operations begin, to the district inspector for the region in which the mine is situated; and that entity, partnership or person is deemed to be the principal employer for the purposes of this Act.

        (5)         If mining operations begin at a mine and subsection (4) has not been complied with, each person who is a member of the syndicate or other association of persons concerned commits an offence.

        (6)         Where a duty arises under subsection (1) or (4) to provide to the district inspector the name and address of a partnership, syndicate or other association of persons (an association ) there is also a duty to provide the name and address of each member of the association.

        [Section 32 amended by No. 68 of 2004 s. 40.]