Section 2
Interpretation
—
(1)
In this Ordinance—
“alienated land” means any land (including any parcel of a subdivided building) in respect of which a registered title for the time being subsists, whether final or provisional, whether in perpetuity or for a term of years, or issued in the exercise of powers conferred by any previous land law, but does not include mining land;
“Authority” means the State Minerals
Management
Authority established under section 7(1);
“authorized officer” means any person duly authorized in writing by the Authority to enforce the provisions of this
Ordinance and to exercise the powers of investigation and enforcement provided under Part X;
“Chairman” means the Chairman of the Authority appointed under section 7;
“Chief Inspector” means the Director of Minerals and
Geoscience or any person appointed by the Minister to be the
Chief Inspector of Mines;
“constitution”, in relation to a company, means the memorandum and articles of association of the company;
“Controller of Rivers” means the Controller of Rivers appointed under section 10(1)(a) of the Sarawak Rivers
Ordinance, 1993 [Cap. 4];
“conveyance” includes a ship, train, vehicle, aircraft and any other means of transport by which persons or goods can be carried;
“development work” means any work carried out in relation to the physical construction of a mine;
“Director” means the Director of Lands and Surveys, and includes any person temporarily exercising the duties of that office;
“Division” means a Division specified or described in the
Schedule to the Administrative Areas Order, 1987 [Swk. L.N.
19/87];
“environmental impact assessment” means a report made in accordance with guidelines published by—
(a)
the Controller of Environmental Quality appointed under section 3(9) of the Natural Resources and
Environment Ordinance [Cap. 84 (1958 Ed.)]; or
13
(b)
the Director General of Environmental Quality appointed under section 3 of the Environmental Quality
Act 1974 [Act 127],
(as the case may be) containing an assessment of the impact a mining operation will have or is likely to have on the environment and the proposed measures that shall be undertaken to prevent, reduce, control or mitigate the impact on the environment;
“fossick” means to search for and to extract minerals by using simple implements and to remove the minerals as samples, specimens or lapidary work without any intention to sell the minerals;
“Government” means the Government of the State of
Sarawak;
“Inspector” means any person appointed by the Minister to be an Inspector of Mines, and includes the Chief Inspector;
“land laws” includes the Land Code [Cap. 81 (1958 Ed.)]
and its rules;
“land surveyor” means any person who is licensed under the
Land Surveyors Ordinance, 2001 [Cap. 40] to undertake cadastral land survey in Sarawak, and includes any land surveyors in the service of the Government who is authorized by the Director in writing to undertake these surveys;
“lessee” means the person for the time being registered as the lessee of land comprised in a mining lease, and includes the holder of a mining certificate;
“mine”, when used as a noun, means any place, excavation or working wherein, whereon or whereby any operation connected with mining is carried on together with all buildings, premises, erections, water reservoirs, tailing ponds, waste, other dumps and appliances belonging or appertaining thereto above or below the ground or in or below the sea for the purpose of winning, obtaining or extracting any mineral by any mode or method or for the purpose of dressing, treating or preparing minerals ore;
“mine rehabilitation plan” means a rehabilitation plan approved under section 110;
“mineral ore” means any mineral of economic interest from which one or more valuable constituents may profitably be recovered by treatment;
“mineral tenement” means a panning licence, proprietary mining licence, prospecting licence (whether general or exclusive), mining lease or certificate, or any of them for the purpose of prospecting or mining of minerals or mineral ores, as the case may be;
“minerals” means all minerals and mineral substances, including petroleum and natural gas, but does not include murrum, sand (other than sand used in the manufacture of glass), limestone, sandstone or other stone or such other mineral substances as the Yang di-Pertua Negeri may by notification in the Gazette declare not to be minerals for the purposes of this
Ordinance;
[Am. Cap. A178/2018]
“mining” means to disturb, remove, cast, carry, wash, sift, smelt, refine, crush or otherwise deal with any rock, stone, gravel, clay, sand, soil or mineral by any mode or method whatever for the purpose of extracting metal or mineral therefrom;
“mining land” means land comprised in a mining lease or mining certificate;
“mining lease” means a lease of land for mining purposes, and includes a lease for such purposes issued prior to the 1st day of January, 2004, and a mining certificate issued under section 47(1);
“Minister” means the Minister in the Government for the time being charged with the responsibility for land and minerals;
“occupied land” includes—
(a)
all alienated land; and
(b)
Native Area Land and Native Customary Land as defined in the Land Code [Cap. 81 (1958 Ed.)];
15
“owner”, in relation to any land, means—
(a)
the registered proprietor of the land;
(b)
any person or body having a registered interest affecting the land (including a sublease thereof);
(c)
any person having a beneficial interest protected by caveat affecting the land; and
(d)
any person having lawful occupation of the land in whom the land is vested under any written law;
“pan” or “panning” means to wash or sift for the purpose of obtaining minerals;
“panning licence” means a licence for panning of minerals issued under section 16;
“police officers” has the meaning assigned to it by the Police
Act 1967 [Act 344];
“prospect” means to search for minerals, and includes fossicking and such working as is reasonably necessary to enable the prospector to test the mineral-bearing qualities of the land;
“prospecting area” means any land in respect of which a prospecting licence is for the time being in force;
“prospecting licence” means a prospecting licence, whether general or exclusive, issued under section 22(6) read with section 25;
“register” means the register of mining leases and the register of mining certificates kept under this Ordinance, and includes the Register kept under Part III of the repealed
Ordinance;
“Registrar” means the public officer appointed to have custody of a register and to make entry or record thereon, and includes any person temporarily discharging the duties of that office;
“reserved forest area” means any forest reserve, protected forest or communal forest constituted under the Forests
Ordinance [Cap. 126 (1958 Ed.)] or any law relating to forestry prior to the date of coming into force of that Ordinance;
“reserved land” shall have the meaning assigned to that expression by the Land Code [Cap. 81 (1958 Ed.)];
“rock material” shall have the meaning assigned to that expression by section 32(1)(d) of the Land Code [Cap. 81 (1958
Ed.)];
“sample” means a fraction of naturally occurring matter deemed to be indicative of the mass of which it forms a part;
“Secretary” means any person appointed by the Authority as its Secretary under section 7(2)(a), and includes any person temporarily discharging the duties of that office;
“State land” shall have the meaning assigned to it by the
Land Code [Cap. 81 (1958 Ed.)];
“State Planning Authority” means the State Planning
Authority established under section 228 of the Land Code [Cap.
81 (1958 Ed.)];
“State Water Authority” means the State Water Authority appointed under section 16(1) of the Water Ordinance, 1994
[Cap. 13];
“Superintendent” means the Superintendent of Lands and
Surveys exercising powers as such in the Division in which the land concerned is situated, and includes the Director;
“unoccupied land” means land which is not occupied land;
17
“waste” includes any discarded overburden material, tailing, any intermediate product from mining or mineral processing stockpiled for further operations, water treated or stored in mining or mineral processing, and any chemical substance temporarily or permanently withdrawn from such operations;
“water licence” means a water licence issued under section 82;
“water permit” means a water permit issued under section 83.
(2)
In this Ordinance, a reference to the Yang di-Pertua Negeri shall be construed as a reference to the Yang di-Pertua Negeri acting in accordance with the advice of the Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan
Negeri or of a member acting under the general authority of the
Majlis.