i think this is some interesting statistics , page-6

Milways,

I was going to give some homework for the library...but also have you seen the announcement from BLK?

there are 2 articles referenced in a case in WA Supreme Court 980734D (just plug this ref into search) look at page 21 onwards

they are:

Current Developments in Natural Resources Law and Policy in Western Australia" and published in the Australian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy 1994, Vol 1 No 1

or

"Resource Security and Integrated Management of Access to Natural Resources: The Case of Minerals in Western Australia" in Gardner (ed) "The Challenge of Resource Security Law and Policy", 1993

they past commentary on a previous court case...I haven't seen either but they sound interesting with regards the workings of s.111A

in fact the whole case is interesting and this section looks at the public interest issue...(pg 14)

More recently in Re Warden Heaney the Court was required to dealwith questions relating to the standing required by an objector to an applicationfor a mining tenement. The question arose, in that case, whether privateinterests could suffice to give standing in circumstances in which there is apublic interest in their protection. This led Franklyn J, with whom Murray andOwen JJ were in agreement, to consider s111A of the Act. His Honour said (at325):"It is important to recognise ... that in that context the publicinterest is that identified in s111A. Consequently, in my view, tobe relevant as going to 'public interest', an objection, whetherlodged primarily in respect of a 'private interest' or as one of'public interest' must contain a discernible objection concerningthe public interest of such a nature as to be capable of exciting theconsideration of the Minister under s111A. That is to say, it mustbe discernible from the objection that it raises a question which,objectively viewed, can reasonably give rise to a concern that thedisturbance of the relevant land or grant of the application mightnot be in the public interest. The determination whether or notsuch disturbance or grant is or is not in the public interest is a matter for the Minister to be taken into account in the exercise ofhis discretion under s111A."

Franklyn J had earlier in the course of his reasons suggested (at 324)that the following passage from the judgment of Jacobs J in Sinclair v MiningWarden at Maryborough (1975) 132 CLR 473 at 487 appeared to beappropriate to the concept of "public interest" in the context of the Act:

"The words 'public interest' are so wide that they comprehend thewhole field of objection other than objection founded ondeficiencies in the application and in the required marking out ofthe land applied for. For instance the public interest may tellagainst the grant of a mining lease even though particular interestsof an individual are the only interests primarily affected. It maythus be in the public interest that the interests of that individual benot overborne. However, all the objections can be and should berelated to public interest. But private interests as such are not arelevant consideration. So far as they are intended to beprotected, they are specifically so protected by the Act itself."