Due to its links with the Northern Territory and proximity to the border, the APY Lands do not observe daylight savings unlike the rest of South Australia.

Consequently, by the time the South Australian Parliament began to seriously consider granting land rights in the area, a growing number of opal miners were setting up operations around Mintabie.

On that day, under Section 28(2) of the Act, the township of Mintabie was "deemed to have been leased by Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara to the Crown for a term of twenty-one years", until 21 October 2002.

It is located within the Mintabie Precious Stone Field, which is approximately 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) in size and is proclaimed for the purpose of opal mining.

[17] In February 2018 the state government declared that it would not renew any leases in the town,[18] after a report found it had become a centre for illegal distribution of drugs and alcohol into the APY Lands.

[20] The APY Lands executive board would not allow residents to live in the town once it was transitioned to their control, with the date originally set at 1 July 2019.

[21] However this date was extended following negotiations to 3 January 2020, after residents settled the Federal Court litigation instituted to keep the town open.

On 3 December 2009, the South Australian Parliament passed the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights (Mintabie) Amendment Act 2009.

[26] In 2007, the South Australian Department of Primary Industry and Resources described Mintabie's geology as follows: the Eromanga Basin borders onto old basement rocks which are about 1,500 million years old and consist of granite and gneiss.

Also on the western margin lie the sediments of the Officer Basin which comprise sandstone, quartzite, siltstone and shale about 500 million years old.

The opal deposits at Mintabie occur in a sandstone unit which was bleached and weathered by the same process that affected the Eromanga Basin sediments as described above.

[29] Accommodation is catered for by the Mintabie Hotel (Goanna Grill and Bar) which has 6 rooms, 2 self-contained units and also a 24-hour power caravan park.

A permit from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara is required to access Mintabie, as the land is owned freehold by the resident Aboriginal people.

[citation needed] Despite long periods of government inattention, Anangu have repeatedly highlighted the negative impacts that certain individuals and businesses operating out of Mintabie have on their lives.

On that occasion, Anangu called for South Australia Police (SAPOL) "to pay greater attention in Mintabie to the sale of alcohol to Aborigines.

In 2002, in a written submission to a parliamentary inquiry, Iwantja Council alleged that many people at Mintabie were involved in "selling sly grog to Anangu."

The reason it continues is that the people have to be caught in the act, an almost impossible task as the Marla Police Station is about 40 kilometres (25 mi) away[35]A month after Iwantja made these allegations, SAPOL confirmed Mintabie as the source for a significant amount of the drugs including alcohol coming on to the APY Lands.

[36] On that occasion, SAPOL also reported that it had "recently found buried at Mintabie a large container set up with hydroponic gear that [had] been the source of cannabis for much of the lands for the past couple of years.

"[38] In April 2008, the Mullighan Inquiry into child sexual abuse on the APY Lands and in state care noted SAPOL's concern that Mintabie was "being used as a staging post for the trafficking of marijuana on the Lands"[39] Even so, Coober Pedy has been overlooked as a source of alcohol and other drugs even though it is only 250 km south of Mintabie (where only during 2011 an APY citizen was murdered due to alcohol-related sales in Coober Pedy).