Emissions and discharges

The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) has responsibility under Part V Division 3 of the EP Act for granting works approvals, licences, and registrations for prescribed premises. Part V Division 3 regulates emissions and discharges to prevent unacceptable impacts to public health or the environment.
You can find an overview of the works approval and licensing process on the DWER one-stop-shop website.

See the Industry regulation guide to licensing and the Procedure: Prescribed premises works approvals and licences for more details.

Common categories of prescribed premises relevant to the mining industry include:

• Category 5: Processing or beneficiation of metallic or non-metallic ore: comprising crushing or grinding, or tailings storage or reprocessing (production or design capacity of 50,000 tonnes or more per year).
  
• Category 6: Mine dewatering: premises on which water is extracted and discharged into the environment to allow mining of ore (production or design capacity of 50,000 tonnes or more per year).
  
• Category 7: Vat or in situ leaching of metal: premises on which metal is extracted from ore with a chemical solution (production or design capacity of 5,000 tonnes or more per year).

The full list of prescribed premises categories is in Schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Regulations 1987 (WA).

Timeline

DWER has a target timeframe of 60 business days to assess an application. This includes the following processes (where applicable):

• validating the application and supporting information
• public advertising of the works approval or licence application
• directly referring the application to people or public authorities with a direct interest in the application or other stakeholders
• assessing the application and considering submissions lodged
• drafting the decision report, works approval, licence, registration, or amendment
• considering applicant comments on drafts.

The timeframe does not include time taken by the applicant to:

• pay the prescribed fee
• submit further information when asked in writing
• respond to draft documents or instruments, or a notice of the department’s intended refusal to grant.

All targets are subject to sufficient information being supplied on lodgement to assess the application.

Before you apply

Before you apply, read the overview of the works approval and licensing process on the DWER one-stop-shop website.