Within the resources industry we all speculate, or estimate based upon experience, about how long it takes to get a mining lease approved. Here at Nitro Solutions we decided to tackle this problem using data analysis and our inhouse expertise. We are now well on our way to determining the predictive factors that will influence individual project timeframes across any commodity in Queensland. Pretty exciting stuff for data driven types like our team!

We were able to dig through decades of publicly available data to determine the permitting timeframes by commodity and examine the trends in the information. We should highlight that this only looking at the timeframes for the mining lease granting process and that environmental legislative timeframes and company driven decisions (such as investment) have been excluded from the data set for 2000 – 2018 presented below.

Surprisingly commodity doesn’t necessarily drive the timeframe.  We had assumed that given the press around metallurgical coal that this might been seen in the more recent times. In terms of the average approval timeframes the averages are:

  • Coal: 3.08 years *Combines thermal and PCI coal
  • All other Minerals: 3.07*Combines all of the remainder

The next time someone asks you how long it takes you’ll now have an answer!  And as for us we’re continuing to grow and apply this knowledge within our advisory services. We can tell you this it’s not the commodity and it isn’t necessarily the size of the resource.

Join in the conversation! Did the timeframes match what you expected? What do you think the real drivers are in relation to project approval timeframes?

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Ngaire Tranter – Environment Director & CEO

Ngaire’s passion for environmental management was accidentally discovered when she was informed that she “talked too much to ever be a traditional scientist”. Since those early days in university Ngaire has used her talents in scientific communications to conduct environmental impact assessments and provide environmental and social governance support for organisations.

In her spare time Ngaire is also developing a world first artificial intelligence program aimed at delivering complex environmental compliance advice in real-time. She also loves spending time with her family and her French Bulldog Gizmo and going boating on the bay.

Find out more about Ngaire.