Progressive certification for an environmental authority

Progressive certification allows you, as the holder of an environmental authority (EA) for a resource activity, to reduce the amount of financial assurance held for your EA. You can also apply for progressive certification if you want to surrender part of your resources tenure.

Progressive certification involves the staged restoration of disturbed areas during the exploration, construction or development and resource extraction phases of your project, instead of large-scale works at the end of your project.

Further information is available in the Progressive certification for resource activities guideline (ESR/2022/5900) (PDF, 259KB).

Applying for progressive certification

As the EA holder, you can apply to request progressive certification over parts of the area of the resource tenure during the life of the project.

This allows you to reduce your financial assurance payment.

With your application, you must submit a progressive certification report (ESR/2015/1616) (DOCX, 233KB).

The report must include a compliance statement, which you must use to document the extent to which activities in or near the proposed certification area have complied with your EA conditions.

The Application for progressive certification (ESR/2015/1563) (DOCX, 192KB) includes details on how to complete a compliance statement.