South Australia's Mining Act reform has passed the State Lower House despite four Liberal backbenchers crossing the floor to vote against the bill.

Liberal backbenchers Fraser Ellis, Steve Murray, Dan Cregan and Nick McBride were joined by Independent MPs Geoff Brock, Troy Bell and Frances Bedford, but with Labor supporting the Government, the bill passed.

Farmers protested on the steps of Parliament House, concerned the legislation did not provide enough protection for agricultural land.

Grain Producers SA (GPSA), which represents South Australian grain growers, has called for an independent review of all of Australia's mining acts to better inform the act in South Australia.

Four Government MPs address a crowd of protestors before crossing the floor in Parliament. ( Twitter: Petria Ladgrove )

GPSA Chairman Wade Dabinett said the lobby group did not support the bill in its current form in any way and wanted to see this process removed from the Minister and the Mining Department.

"If the Government really wants to prioritise agriculture, which it says it does, and we've just partnered with the Government on the industry blueprint to grow our grain industry, they should make sure we have place where we can go fairly to seek agricultural fairly instead of going to the Department of Mines," he said.

"It is ridiculous that the agriculture industry has to go and seek protection for our industry and our land to the Department of Mining and the Minister for Mining, when their whole purpose for being is to promote that industry."

Both Labor's former Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis and the current Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan, committed to reform beyond the current bill that has passed, but GPSA does not believe there has been enough information about what that will mean either.

"They have never actually told us what phase two and phase three of this reform looks like and what we are saying is, 'scrap the bill, shelve it, lets go to an independent review and redo the process', because the process to date has failed our industry," Mr Dabinett said.

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"He may have captured the concerns with the Mining Act but we've got concerns with why the Mining Act is the appropriate place to house agricultural protection — it's not."

Yorke Peninsula farmer Bill Moloney said farmers were angry about a lack of consultation from the Government.

"[Mining minister] Dan van Holst Pellekaan just hasn't listened and what people are cranky about is that the Liberals promised full consultation and open dialogue, but consultation has been extremely minimal."

Mr Moloney said the protests were just the beginning of the farmers' fight.

"The fight will still go on, the farmers aren't just going to take this lying down there's a lot of very angry farmers out there who won't see their businesses diminished by a mining company."

Changes will help South Australia's mining industry grow

South Australia's Mining Act 1971 is among the oldest legislation in the country and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the reforms will benefit both mining and agricultural sectors.

South Australia has a long history of mining in the state including Olympic Dam at Roxby Downs. ( ABC News )

"I'm more than happy to consider whether there's some sort of review or inquiry or some other process that can provide us with more information, very happy to do that, but I don't want landholders and mining companies to miss out on the benefits while this next phase is going on," Mr van Holst Pellecaan said.

South Australia's Chamber of Mines and Energy President Greg Hall said he was pleased the Bill passed the Lower House and the industry was happy to continue to engage with agriculture to ensure both sectors can benefit from the legislation.

"Overwhelmingly, the interactions between farmers and industry representatives have been positive, they've been conciliatory, respectful and going forward," Mr Hall said.

"We don't want to see this as a mining versus agriculture thing this is very much trying to find a way forward so that these industries can coexist because both of them represent one-third each of South Australia's export revenue."

The mining industry has also said it would support an independent review of mining legislation around the country and the world to make sure the legislation is world leading.

The bill still has to pass the upper house (Legislative Council) and Independent Geoff Brock has also flagged his intention to call for a review into land access in South Australia as well.