CME welcomes additional approval processing capacity, looks forward to more reform

The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA (CME) welcomes today’s announcement of additional processing capacity for major resources projects, which it hopes is a forerunner to further reform of approval processes.

The WA Government announced today it would invest an additional $1.6 million to fund specialist short-term processing roles.

CME Director of Policy and Advocacy Rob Carruthers said the investment was welcomed and that the mining and resources sector looked forward to ongoing reform around approvals.

“CME welcomes any measure to reduce approval timeframes and improve regulatory outcomes, which is why it has supported the National Cabinet’s commitment to bilateral approvals,” Mr Carruthers said.

“Given increased activity across the mining and resources sector, CME strongly endorses today’s announcement by the WA Government to provide additional processing capacity to work through high volumes of approvals.

“CME looks forward to the next WA government prioritising delivery of structural reforms to reduce unnecessary duplication and procedural delays across project approval processes.

“These reforms have the capacity to bring forward both economic investment and job creation, while ensuring robust regulatory outcomes.”

There are currently $129 billion in mining and resources projects in the pipeline across WA.

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