GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACT 1974

LAWS OF MALAYSIA REPRINT Act 129 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACT 1974 Incorporating all amendments up to 1 January 2006 PUBLISHED BY THE COMMISSIONER OF LAW REVISION, MALAYSIA UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE REVISION OF LAWS ACT 1968 IN COLLABORATION WITH PERCETAKAN NASIONAL MALAYSIA BHD 2006 2 Laws of Malaysia ACT 129 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACT 1974 Date of Royal Assent … … … … … … 8 March 1974 Date of publication in the Gazette … … … 14 March 1974 PREVIOUS REPRINTS First Reprint ... Second Reprint ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1995 2000 Geological Survey LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 129 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACT 1974 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS PART I PRELIMINARY Section 1. Short title and commencement 2. Interpretation PART II ADMINISTRATION 3. Appointment, powers and duties of officers 4. Power of Minister to issue directions 5. Consultations by Geological Survey Officers PART III GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS BY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OFFICERS 6. Authority for geological survey 7. Power to enter land and notice to enter land 8. Power of a Geological Survey Officer 9. Claim for compensation for damage PART IV GENERAL OBLIGATIONS RELATING TO GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, ETC. 10. Application of Part IV 3 4 Laws of Malaysia ACT 129 Section 11. Notice on person prospecting 12. Finding of fossiliferous material to be notified 13. Development of certain wells to be notified 14. Certain excavations to be notified PART V GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS 15. Establishment of archives and collections 16. Appointment of Keeper of Archives and Curator of Collections 17. Retention and disposal of specimens and samples PART VI GENERAL 18. General penalty 19. Offences by bodies of persons and by servants and agents 20. Who may prosecute 21. Action of officers as offence 22. Regulations Geological Survey 5 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 129 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACT 1974 An Act regulate and control geological surveys, to establish geological archives and to provide for matters incidental thereto. [1 March 1976, P.U. (B) 103/1976] BE IT ENACTED by the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong with the advice and consent of the Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: PART I PRELIMINARY Short title and commencement 1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Geological Survey Act 1974 and shall apply throughout Malaysia. (2) This Act shall come into force on such date as the Minister may by notification in the Gazette appoint; and the Minister may appoint different dates for the coming into operation of different provisions of this Act and different dates may be appointed for different States or parts of Malaysia: Provided that no date shall be appointed under this section in respect of Sabah and Sarawak unless the Governments of those States have been consulted. Interpretation 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires— “analysis” means the determination of the composition of a specimen or sample by physical or chemical method; 6 Laws of Malaysia ACT 129 “authorized person” means a person authorized by a Geological Survey Officer in making a geological survey; “Collector” means a Land Administrator within the meaning of the National Land Code [Act 56 of 1965] and a Collector of Land Revenue within the meaning of the Land Ordinance of Sabah [Cap. 68] and in relation to Sarawak means the Superintendent appointed under section 3 of the Land Code of Sarawak [Cap. 81]; “Director General” means the Director General of Geological Survey appointed under section 3; “fossiliferous material” means any mineral substance, including rock material, which contains remains or traces of animals or plants which have been preserved by natural processes in the earth’s crust; “geological survey” means any systematic investigation of the surface, or content of the earth with or without the aid of any physical or chemical measurement; “Geological Survey Officer” means any person appointed under section 3; “identification” means the naming of a sample using simple physical and chemical tests when necessary; “mineral” means any naturally occurring homogeneous substance with a definite chemical composition and an ordered atomic arrangement; “ore” means solid naturally occurring mineral aggregate of economic interest from which one or more valuable constituents may profitably be recovered by treatment; “rock material” means any rock, stone, marble, gravel, sand, earth, laterite, loam, clay, soil, mud, turf, peat, coral, shell or guano within or upon any land; “sample” means a fraction of naturally occurring matter representative of the mass of which it forms a part; “specimen” means a fraction of naturally occurring matter not necessarily representative of the mass of which it forms a part. Geological Survey 7 PART II ADMINISTRATION Appointment, powers and duties of officers 3. (1) There shall be appointed a Director General of Geological Survey, a Deputy Director General of Geological Survey and such other officers of the Geological Survey as may be deemed necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act. (2) The duties and powers of the officers appointed under this section shall be those assigned to them by this Act and any regulations made thereunder. (3) Every officer appointed under this section shall be deemed by such appointment to be vested with all the powers of any Geological Survey Officer subordinate to him. (4) The Director General may authorize any person in writing to conduct a geological survey in his behalf. (5) Every appointment and authorization under this section shall be published in the Gazette. (6) Subject to section 4, the Director General shall have superintendence over all other officers appointed or persons authorized under this section. (7) All officers appointed and persons authorized under this section shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of the Penal Code [Act 574] applicable. Power of Minister to issue directions 4. The Minister may from time to time give the Director General directions of a general character, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, as to the exercise of the powers and discretions conferred upon the Director General by, and the duties required to be discharged by the Director General under this Act or any regulations made thereunder, in relation to all matters which appear to him to affect any geological survey, and the Director General shall give effect to all such directions. 8 Laws of Malaysia ACT 129 Consultations by Geological Survey Officers 5. (1) The Director General may authorize any Geological Survey Officer to undertake consultation, analysis or other service for any other person. (2) A Geological Survey Officer authorized under subsection (1) may require the person consulting him to obtain the written approval of the proprietor or occupier of all land onto which he requires to enter, and to obtain such permits and authority as may be necessary under any law for the purpose of the consultation, analysis or other service. (3) In the event of any specimen or sample being submitted for analysis a Geological Survey Officer authorized under subsection (1) may order the retention or disposal of the specimen or sample or any portion thereof as he deems fit. (4) Fees for consultation, analytical and other services under this section may be charged at such rates as may be prescribed. PART III GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS BY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OFFICERS Authority for geological survey 6. Whenever it appears to the Minister that a geological survey should be made of any area he may, with the concurrence of the State Authority, by notification in the Gazette, designate the area to be surveyed (hereinafter referred to as “the designated area”) by the Director General. Power to enter land and notice to enter land 7. (1) Subject to this section a Geological Survey Officer or an authorized person shall have power to enter any land within the designated area for the purpose of geological survey. (2) A Geological Survey Officer or an authorized person shall cause a notice to be served on any person who is the proprietor or occupier of any land, or lessee in the case of mining land, within the designated area notifying that person of his intention to enter upon the land for purpose of geological survey. The notice shall be served not less than 14 days prior to the date of the intended entry. Geological Survey 9 (3) Where entry to or egress from the designated area cannot be effected without passing through an alienated land, mining land or land occupied under temporary occupation licence, the Geological Survey Officer or the authorized person shall serve a notice on the proprietor, lessee or occupier thereof notifying his intention to enter and re-enter such land for purpose of access to the designated area. The notice shall be served not less than 14 days prior to the date of the intended use of the land as an access. (4) Any notice to be served under this section may be served on a person or body of persons in the following manner, that is to say— (a) by delivering the notice to the person; (b) by delivering the notice— (i) at the person’s usual or last known place of abode or business to his servant or to an adult member of his family; or (ii) at the body’s registered office or usual or last known place of business to its servant or agent; (c) by sending the notice by prepaid registered post to the person or body— (i) at the person’s usual or last known abode or place of business; or (ii) at the body’s registered office or usual or last known place of business; or (d) where the Director General is satisfied that a notice under this section cannot be served personally or by post (either because the person to be served is evading service or for some other reason)— (i) by affixing a copy of the notice in a conspicuous position on the land and on a courthouse, mosque or penghulu’s office or in a market or other public place in the area in which the land is situated; (ii) by publishing a copy of the notice in the Gazette and if he thinks fit, in one or more of the newspapers circulating in the State where the land is situated. 10 Laws of Malaysia ACT 129 (5) Any person who upon being served with the notice under subsections (2) and (3) shall allow any Geological Survey Officer or authorized person to enter the land or any part thereof. Power of a Geological Survey Officer 8. (1) Upon service of the notice under section 7 and subject to subsection (2) the Geological Survey Officer or any authorized person may, for purpose of making such investigations as the Director General considers desirable in relation to any geological survey— (a) enter upon any land within the designated area; (b) cut, remove or otherwise clear such uncultivated vegetation as may be necessary for the proper conduct of such survey; (c) erect or emplace such pegs and marks as may be necessary for the proper conduct of such survey; (d) conduct a superficial geological survey; (e) conduct an artificial geophysical survey; (f) bore, drill, fracture, dig or pit over the land; (g) obtain and remove any specimen or sample from the land in furtherance of such survey and remove and dispose of as he deems fit such superficial or cognate material as may be necessary to obtain the specimen or sample. (2) Any Geological Survey Officer or authorized person entering upon any land for the purpose of a geological survey shall, on demand by the occupier of the land, produce to the occupier his letter of authority in the form prescribed. (3) In this section— “artificial geophysical survey” means any investigation of the surface, subsurface, or content of the earth by measuring the deviations of artificially induced physical forces; “geochemical survey” means any systematic investigation of the surface, subsurface, or content of the earth by means of chemical analysis of specimens or sampl