Organisation and Administration of Sector

Abstract

The survey of mining legislation in the eight Commonwealth countries demonstrates a clear separation between surface rights and the rights to minerals whether they occur on the surface as alluvial or residual products or as sub-surface accumulations. The domanial system, contrasting to the traditional accession system of the old English common law, is the operative norm, since all the statutes have vested the rights to minerals in the state whether called the ‘State’ as in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, or Papua New Guinea, the ‘President on behalf of the Republic’ as in Zambia or the ‘Crown’ as in the case of Western Australia and Quebec (Canada). However, vestiges of the accessional system were retained for grants made before certain periods as demonstrated in Table 2.1. Even in the latter case, these rights are circumscribed by various provisions which in fact retain for the State the right to administer the method of development of the mineral resources. The African countries in the study retain ancestral rights to certain building and industrial minerals free of any impost, but retain for the State the right to supervise their disposal. In the case of Perak State, Malaysia, the ancestral rights to alluvial tin can be lost if the holders do not work the areas for two years.