Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) This section applies if the application covers blocks in an external territory offshore area.
(2) If the applicant does not do what is required by sections 199 to 204, the responsible Commonwealth Minister (as the Joint Authority for that offshore area) must refuse the application.
(3) If the applicant does what is required by sections 199 to 204, the responsible Commonwealth Minister (as the Joint Authority for that offshore area) may:
(a) provisionally grant a mining licence to the applicant; or
(b) subject to section 208, refuse the application.
Note: Under section 232, the grant of the licence cannot be effective before it is registered (see section 333 for registration). The grant will not be registered until it has been properly accepted (see section 214 for proper acceptance ).