Hundreds of opal miners in western New South Wales have had their "livelihoods cut off" after the discovery of a government administrative error rendered their licences invalid.
The state's Natural Resources Minister, Courtney Houssos, said a departmental review found 827 miners in Lightning Ridge and 31 in White Cliffs were granted invalid mining licences.
Lightning Ridge opal miner Ian Woodcock said there was widespread confusion and panic in the small town, which is home to fewer than 2,000 people.
"It's terrible at the moment. People are asking, 'What are we going to do? It's our livelihoods,'" he said.
"Some people just find enough to keep them going and it's those people that are doing it a bit hard. It's going to cut off their livelihood."
A notice on the government's website's says small-scale mineral claims granted or transferred between January 1, 2015 and February 13, 2023 were affected.
"Miners must cease all activities under these claims until they obtain a new mineral claim." it says.
But Mr Woodcock said he had received no communication from the government about the status of his licence, and that he and many other miners still intended to go to work on Thursday.
Ms Houssos said the review found the error was due to "a range of issues" caused by reforms made in 2015 to the Mining Act 1992.
"On behalf of the government. I apologise for this disruption to miners and landholders," she said in a statement to media.
"We know how important the opal industry is to Lightning Ridge, White Cliffs and surrounding communities."
Ms Houssos said the government would try to speed up the approval process for impacted miners who now needed to get new licences.
She said the review had uncovered a total of 3,343 mineral licences which had been deemed invalid.
The minister will be in Lightning Ridge on Tuesday, June 6 for a government information session at the local bowling club.
The Lightning Ridge Miners' Association will hold their own town meeting at 4pm on Thursday.
Ms Houssos said the government planned to run an independent review into the current rules surrounding small-scale opal licences.
"This review will analyse the current state of the industry, including access and landholder compensation arrangements and will consider the findings and recommendations of the 2011 Murray Wilcox report to inform practical changes to the legislative framework.
"I look forward to visiting Lightning Ridge when parliament rises to meet in person with miners and landholders to gain a firsthand understanding of opal mining and work with them to identify improvements to the current framework."
