Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion today announced the release of the first year of data collected for Western Australia’s world-leading Mining Rehabilitation Fund (MRF).

The publicly available information tracks ground disturbance from mining activities, sourced from the mandatory reporting requirements of the MRF.

“There are about 22,000 mining tenements in WA and all holders are required to provide the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) with accurate information on the types and areas of ground disturbance for each tenement,” Mr Marmion said.

“For the first time, everyone is able to see how much land is actually disturbed in any year by exploration and mining companies operating on Mining Act tenure.”

The data is available for users to filter and search by region, type of disturbances and type of lease. Information such as the combined size of all of the State’s open pit mines is also available.

“This is part of our commitment to the responsible development of WA’s vital resources sector,” the Minister said. “It will improve transparency and help industry to research tenements.”

A university competition targeting postgraduate students is planned for early 2015, with a prize for the most innovative use of MRF data.

Competition details will be available on the department’s website later this year.

MRF data is used to calculate annual levies paid by tenement holders into a fund which, in time, will be used for rehabilitation of abandoned and legacy mines across the State.