Mineral Titles Online (MTO) is a vital daily resource to Explorers and Tenement Managers in WA. With access to live tenure data, they can both maintain their own tenure, while also monitoring competitors for compliance, which is a key component of transparency and accountability in the WA Mining System.
While MTO is a world leading resource, a fundamental design limitation is that, while data on tenure is presented in a way that is accessible to everyone, it is not amenable to most ‘bulk’ management scenarios which are unique to WA where relatively small companies may have hundreds of tenements under management.
Common queries are:
- Do I have any rents outstanding?
- Do I have any form 5’s due?
- Can I get a current list of conditions across this project?
These can all be answered by searching MTO, but only manually, tenement by tenement, and then copying and pasting data into spreadsheets or documents. This process is extremely time consuming and open to data entry errors.
Recognising the value of the information on MTO, the DMP had been planning since 2004 to offer a digital data download service. This was released a few years ago, but the pricing model meant the cost for regular, repeated enquiries such as those used to answer the above questions on a weekly or monthly basis is prohibitive. In addition, the XML data format requires specialised analysis tools to be usable.
In the absence of such a service and with the desire to streamline tenement management and compliance, companies in WA have developed tools to download tenure data from MTO and make it available for analysis and reporting. These tools have over the past 10 years become fundamental to many managers’ work processes, and have resulted in major cost and time savings, along with improved compliance.
While these tools use ‘screen scraping’ techniques to collect data, they do not access any information that is not available to any ordinary MTO user.
The recent public outcry over ‘data mining’ and the decision by the DMP to cut off users who have been identified to be running automated download tools has impacted a large percentage of land managers in WA, and is a step backwards in terms of WA being a world leader in providing efficient, transparent and accountable tenure governance.
Recognising the value of MTO and digital tenure data to tenement managers in WA, we, the undersigned, request the DMP to:
- make available a daily download of MTO similar to that which is available on the data centre and/or
- set up a subscription charging mechanism for the digital data download that is cost effective for regularly updated tenement data (as opposed to once off).
In the interim, we request the DMP permit screen scraping for legitimate tenement compliance purposes.
Petitioners at 18/2/2015
| No | Name | Company (if known) | Signed On |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Groeneveld | Sandfire Resources Ltd | 3/02/2015 |
| 2 | Mairi Walsh | Black Oak Minerals Ltd | 3/02/2015 |
| 3 | Morgan Frejabise | 3/02/2015 | |
| 4 | Sharon Bell | Independence Group | 3/02/2015 |
| 5 | Kate Searle | FMGL | 3/02/2015 |
| 6 | Tanya Champion | Northern Star | 3/02/2015 |
| 7 | Marco Tentori | Anderson’s Tenement Management | 3/02/2015 |
| 8 | James Bell | 3/02/2015 | |
| 9 | Paul Penna | BC Iron Limited | 3/02/2015 |
| 10 | Robin Humberston | Austwide Mining Title Management Services | 3/02/2015 |
| 11 | Michelle Stokes | Auzex Exploration Limited | 3/02/2015 |
| 12 | Brett Anderson | Anderson’s Tenement Management | 3/02/2015 |
| 13 | Geoff Willetts | 3/02/2015 | |
| 14 | Linda Skender | LMS Corporation Pty Ltd | 3/02/2015 |
| 15 | Douglas Jones | Chalice Gold Mines Ltd | 3/02/2015 |
| 16 | adam mckay | Hanking Gold | 3/02/2015 |
| 17 | Gary Ferris | Monax Mining Limited | 3/02/2015 |
| 18 | Yvonne Weissgerber | Panoramic Resources Ltd | 3/02/2015 |
| 19 | Eldon Stone | Hetherington Exploration & Mining Title Services Pty Ltd | 3/02/2015 |
| 20 | Paul Howard | 3/02/2015 | |
| 21 | Lauren Parola | BHP Billiton Nickel West | 4/02/2015 |
| 22 | Sandy Thuel | St Barbara Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 23 | Peter Litic | Xserv Pty Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 24 | Gemma Glass | Gold Fields Australia | 4/02/2015 |
| 25 | Nina Mas | Anderson’s Tenement Management | 4/02/2015 |
| 26 | Caroline Todd | Barrack Kanowna | 4/02/2015 |
| 27 | Iva Morrell | 4/02/2015 | |
| 28 | Sara Winton | 04/02/2015 | |
| 29 | Lydia Brisbout | 4/02/2015 | |
| 30 | Alice Hurlbatt | 4/02/2015 | |
| 31 | Shannon McMahon | McMahon Mining Title Services Pty Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 32 | Lisa Cullen | 4/02/2015 | |
| 33 | Emily Vo | Independence Group | 4/02/2015 |
| 34 | Helen Arcus | 4/02/2015 | |
| 35 | Kathryn Todd | Black Oak Minerals Ltd | 04/02/2015 |
| 36 | Andy Burgess | 04/02/2015 | |
| 37 | Hayley McNamara | 4/02/2015 | |
| 38 | TODD AXFORD | Stratum Metals | 4/02/2015 |
| 39 | Rachael Chalmers | Goldfields | 4/02/2015 |
| 40 | David Perger | Herron Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 41 | Lorne McCrum | Herron Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 42 | Bruce Legendre | Nemex Pty Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 43 | Tracy Browning | Gold Fields Exploration Tenement Services | 4/02/2015 |
| 44 | Kelly Halford | Cliffs Natural Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 45 | Periss-Lillie Hunt | Gasconye Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 46 | Sue Palmer | Iluka Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 47 | Greg Partington | Auzex Exploration Limited | 4/02/2015 |
| 48 | Linda Fry | Regis Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 49 | Mike Dunbar | Gascoyne Resources | 4/02/2015 |
| 50 | Joe Houldsworth | 4/02/2015 | |
| 51 | Matthew Svensson | 4/02/2015 | |
| 52 | Cara Fernihough | Atlas Iron Limited | 4/02/2015 |
| 53 | Concerned Miner | 4/02/2015 | |
| 54 | Karl Wolzak | Resource Mapping Pty Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 55 | David Crook | Pioneer Resources Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 56 | Andrew McNamara | McMahon Mining Title Services Pty Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 57 | Carol Traynor | 4/02/2015 | |
| 58 | Jess Bosio | Austwide Mining Title Management Services | 4/02/2015 |
| 59> | Donald Perry | 4/02/2015 | |
| 60 | Kate Major | Austwide Mining Title Management Services | 4/02/2015 |
| 61 | Lucy Oborn | Atlas Partners | 4/02/2015 |
| 62 | MELINDA O’RYAN | 4/02/2015 | |
| 63 | Penny Drew | 4/02/2015 | |
| 64 | Kelly Carter | Rio Tinto Iron Ore | 4/02/2015 |
| 65 | Steve Milner | 4/02/2015 | |
| 66 | A Very Concerned Tenement Manager | 4/02/2015 | |
| 67 | Craig Humberston | Austwide Mining Title Management Services | 4/02/2015 |
| 68 | Peter Brammall | 4/02/2015 | |
| 69 | Gemma McGoldrick | Newcrest Mining Ltd | 4/02/2015 |
| 70 | Peter Johansen | 4/02/2015 | |
| 71 | Deep Shankar | 4/02/2015 | |
| 72 | Kevin Connell | Austwide Mining Title Management Services | 5/02/2015 |
| 73 | Michael Giles | 5/02/2015 | |
| 74 | Graeme Johnston | 5/02/2015 | |
| 75 | Ian Pegg | 5/02/2015 | |
| 76 | Alf Valentine | 5/02/2015 | |
| 77 | Karen Williams | 5/02/2015 | |
| 78 | Nancy Czerw | 5/02/2015 | |
| 79 | Hong Saw | 5/02/2015 | |
| 80 | Aning Zhang | 5/02/2015 | |
| 81 | Amanda Corby | 5/02/2015 | |
| 82 | Amanda Scott | 5/02/2015 | |
| 83 | Richard Harmsworth | 6/02/2015 | |
| 84 | Jacqui Chamia | 6/02/2015 | |
| 85 | Rod McKenzie | 8/02/2015 | |
| 86 | Renee Oldenhof | 9/02/2015 | |
| 87 | Leanne Lapworth | 9/02/2015 | |
| 88 | Stephanie Lee | 10/02/2015 | |
| 89 | Christine Stone | 10/02/2015 | |
| 90 | Lizz Schollum | 10/02/2015 | |
| 91 | Naomi Shapleski | 10/02/2015 | |
| 92 | Chris Williams | 12/02/2015 | |
| 93 | Edward Reeves | 13/02/2015 | |
| 94 | Dan Baldwin | 13/02/2015 | |
| 95 | Carol Sisson | 16/02/2015 | |
| 96 | Fiona Gallon | 16/02/2015 | |
| 97 | Shay Linden | 16/02/2015 |
Comments to the petition
| Name | Signed On | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Mairi Walsh | 3/02/2015 | I work in the exploration industry and rely on MTO downloads via the Expenditure Watch software package to assist me to manage our tenure in an accurate and time efficient way. I personally am only interested in those leases that Black Oak Minerals hold, or have an interest in, and without doing a regular (e.g. monthly or fortnightly) download my administration workload would be greatly increased, leaving less time for geology. |
| Sharon Bell | 3/02/2015 | We are not obtaining any data from the MTO that isn’t available to any / all MTO users. We have simply automated the search process to ensure that it is done regularly and negate human error – which has cost us opportunities in the past. |
| James Bell | 3/02/2015 | Daily downloads speed up the process and allows time to be spent on other things. |
| Paul Penna | 3/02/2015 | I am signing because restricting the access to tenement data will increase the cost of our tenement management, e.g., the monthly audit conducted by our tenement managers will take hours rather than minutes. |
| Michelle Stokes | 3/02/2015 | We and several of our clients use services that are impacted. Unless or until the department itself can provide them (free) it will impact significantly on our compliance costs if we can’t use the service. |
| Brett Anderson |
3/02/2015 | I believe the data should be accessible. |
| Geoff Willetts | 3/02/2015 | Digital download from a trusted source is the way to go and makes sense to have a one stop shop saving time and therefore precious cash for us in the junior resources sector |
| adam mckay | 3/02/2015 | I have a legitimate use for data taken from MTO in an automated fashion in order to maintain company tenure. Its in the states interest to facilitate tools to assist with tenement management. |
| Yvonne Weissgerber | 3/02/2015 | I manage mining tenements for a small group of clients, access to MTO data is a valuable tool to provide audit and backup checks for tenement maintenance and management, as well as providing an efficient method for completion of due diligence investigations. |
| Lauren Parola | 4/02/2015 | BHP Billiton Nickel West Pty Ltd (Nickel West) utilises this important function for the purposes of auditing its own data to ensure accuracy, obtaining ‘Safety Net’ reports to ensure statutory obligations are met (as a back up to our own systems) and monitoring third party tenements which are subject to royalty and other rights afforded to Nickel West. Nickel West has and never will use MTO as a ‘data mining’ tool. |
| Alice Hurlbatt | 4/02/2015 | Hanking Gold Mining utilises this data. Please continue to provide it. thank you Alice |
| Kathryn Todd | 4/02/2015 | MT Audit makes it easier for us to formulate report data quickly. This data is freely available via MTO but we would have to collate manually by individual tenements. |
| TODD AXFORD | 4/02/2015 | I’m signing because this proposed change to the system does impact the compliance cost for explorers and will result in less money available to conduct on the ground exploration activities. From a broader perspective it could reduce WA’s competitiveness in attracting exploration activity. |
| Rachael Chalmers | 4/02/2015 | The vast majority of the “data mining” we do is actually to help us maintain accurate records and ensure compliance of our own tenements! |
| Bruce Legendre | 4/02/2015 | I only use the MT Audit software after hours, usually from 6PM to midnight to check on those areas of the NE Goldfields where I have had Exploration/Mining Interests for over 30 years. |
| Cara Fernihough | 4/02/2015 | In addition to the importance of tenement management and compliance, I’m signing in support of V-Biz, who have been a reliable local business supporting the industry on a level playing field for the last ten years. |
| Concerned Miner | 4/02/2015 | The data mining tool offers a range of utilities that go to “insure” a tenement portfolio, but also provides some advantage toward recognition of ground that may have become recently open to mining.
While there is outcry from prospectors who deem they are missing out on this commercial edge because they cannot afford to pay for the service, but these are the same persons who cannot afford to legitimately mine the areas they are seeking to secure. They will attempt to “bargain” with the larger corporations, to make a passive profit from “claim jumping”. On another level, from the perspective of a junior bulk-commodity explorer, the government has shored up the ongoing reserves for the Rio Group; BHP Group; Hancock group etc by the enactment of the State Agreements. For a junior to be competitive, it needs any edge to ground that may become available in the iron-rich regions of the State. With the current levels of land- banking that is not prevented by the DMP (one only needs to look at the various company holding spreads on the maps that show “iron ore deposits of the Pilbara Regions”), it is evident that without such a tool, the Pilbara will soon be solely owned by FMG; Rio; BHP and the Hancock group. |
| Karl Wolzak | 4/02/2015 | Access to this data through MT Audit and Safety Net is critical to my professional practice. |
| Concerned Miner | 4/02/2015 | It seems the DMP are “reacting” due to the outcry of some prospectors at a recent forum. Perhaps the DMP ought to conduct a forum on this topic and also hear from those in the industry who are supportive of these tools. Before any decision is ultimately made, all points of view ought to be considered and given appropriate weight. |
| David Crook | 4/02/2015 | We subscribe to Tenement Safety Net as a facet of our tenement management system. TSN uses this feed to provide this service. |
| Andrew McNamara | 4/02/2015 | This is a tool that assists with my role at MMTS |
| Carol Traynor | 4/02/2015 | Time is money. Don’t ditch the current auto system. |
| Donald Perry | 4/02/2015 | Data should be available without restriction s |
| Penny Drew | 4/02/2015 | Data should be available as it assists in many ways; making Title Management companies lives easier. |
| Steve Milner | 4/02/2015 | The WA Government and Dept of Mines and Petroleum need to join the 21st Century and listen to the people that keep them employed |
| Deep Shankar | 4/02/2015 | I believe the digital tenure data adds tremendous value in terms of timely data Information to Asset Managers and other bodies seeking the same. |
| Kevin Connell | 5/02/2015 | In this day and age it is important that the DMP provides timely and accurate publicly available data without interference and restrictions. |
| Graeme Johnston | 5/02/2015 | As a taxpayer as well as an exploration manager the data belongs to everyone and access is a right for all. |
| Alf Valentine | 7/2/2015 | MT Audit provides a valuable and essential role in the management of our tenement database. We use MT Audit for legitimate auditing pur oses and for maintaining accurate & timely “project expenditure” records. Any “bulk” interrogation activities (usually audits on a 6 monthly basis) are always conducted after normal office hours. We do not use MT Audit for “data mining” purposes. |
| Richard Harmsworth | 9/2/2015 | Maintaining tenure has to be 100% correct and up to date and made much quicker and more efficient if the digital data is on line. On line data would also make application of the “jealous neighbour” principle much more effective. |
| Rod McKenzie | 7/2/2015 | AS a user of the MTO data using MT audit software, access to the on-line data has enabled quick searches of expenditure, monitoring company activities and checking the tenure status – eg for partial surrenders. To do this process manually would be both time consuming and expensive. |
| Dan Baldwin | 12/2/2015 | Having the ability to see changes in tenements conditions /dealings /reporting /rents etc. from MTO is beneficial to monitor tenements especially with large portfolios. |
