Declaration to prohibit subsea (seabed) mining

The Minister for Environment declared seabed mining to be a prohibited action in accordance with section 38 of the Environment Protection Act 2019. The Minister’s Declaration to Prohibit Subsea Mining PDF (63.3 KB) is supported by her Statement of Reasons PDF (416.2 KB).

To view the Gazette notice ‘Declaration of Prohibited Action: Subsea Mining’ visit Northern Territory Government S30 PDF (192.1 KB).

On 6 March 2012, the Northern Territory Government introduced a moratorium PDF (39.7 KB)on exploration and mining in the Northern Territory (NT) coastal waters until a review of the actual or potential impacts of seabed mining was undertaken. The Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA) and the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) were requested to provide advice to inform the review. Their advice (seabed mining reports) was finalised and presented to the Northern Territory Government.

View further information from the NT EPA website.

Following consideration of the seabed mining reports the Environment Minister announced her intention to prohibit seabed mining in the NT under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act 2019, including a six month extension to the moratorium to allow the Minister to consult with the public and the NT EPA on a draft declaration to prohibit.

Public consultation on a draft declaration to prohibit seabed mining was open for six weeks from 10 May 2021 to 21 June 2021, with 285 submissions received. 271 of these submissions were public form submissions based on a campaign response (Territory based respondents) supporting the draft declaration. The remaining public submissions were received from organisations and individuals.