Mining Industry Act 1926

23 Facilities to be given to Department of Scientific and Industrial Research

(1) Before any person sinks, for the purpose of searching for or getting any minerals, a shaft or borehole intended to reach a depth of more than one hundred feet below the surface, he shall give to the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (hereinafter referred to as " the Committee ") notice in Writing of his intention to do so, and any person who for such a purpose sinks any such shaft or borehole shall keep a journal thereof, and shall retain for a period of not less than six months such specimens of the strata passed through as may have been obtained in the course of the sinking thereof, either as cores or fragments, and shall allow the Committee, or any officer appointed by them, to have free access at all reasonable times to any such shaft, borehole or core, to inspect and take copies of the journals of such shafts or boreholes, to inspect all specimens so obtained and kept, and to take representative specimens of any such cores.

(2) If the person sinking any such shaft or borehole as aforesaid gives notice in writing to the Committee requiring them to treat as confidential any copies of journals or specimens so taken by the Committee or by any officer appointed by them, the Committee shall not allow those copies or specimens to be published or shown to any person not being an officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, except with the consent of the person sinking such shaft or borehole :

Provided that, if at any time the Committee give notice to any person from whom such consent is required that, in their opinion, his consent is unreasonably withheld, then that person may, within three months after such notice is given, appeal to the Railway and Canal Commission, but if at the expiration of that period no such appeal has been made, or if after hearing the appeal the Commission do not make an order restraining them from doing so, the Committee may proceed as if such consent had been given.

(3) The owner, agent, or manager of every mine shall allow the Committee or any officer appointed by them to have free access at all reasonable times to all underground workings, and shall supply to the Committee or to any such officer as aforesaid such information and such specimens of seams or strata sank through or opened out at the mine as may be reasonably required by the Committee.

(4) If any person sinking any shaft or borehole, or the owner, agent or manager of any mine fails to comply with any obligation imposed on him by the foregoing provisions of this section, he shall, in respect of each offence, be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

(5) Any officer appointed by the Committee shall have the same rights as to the production and examination of plans and sections kept in pursuance of sections twenty or twenty-one of the [35 & 36 Vict. c. 77.] Coal Mines Act, 1911, or sections fourteen or nineteen of the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, 1872, as are by those Acts conferred on inspectors, and those Acts shall apply accordingly.