PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian government on Thursday announced that it would offer a further A$5.17-million to 48 companies and prospectors, to support innovative drilling projects and continue driving the discovery of new mineral deposits.

The funding formed part of Round 12 of the exploration incentive scheme's (EIS’s) co-funded exploration drilling programme.

"We are committed to this highly successful programme because Western Australia needs new discoveries to underpin future prosperity and drive resources sector job creation," Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion said.

“Now in its seventh year, the scheme has some serious runs on the board - most notably the Nova nickel project, a tremendous discovery that is on track to become an operating mine next year.”

Since 2009, the scheme has offered funding to more than 590 projects, resulting in more than 430 000 m of drilling across the state.

“In that time, it has assisted more than 20 discoveries including the Oxley potash, Handpump gold, Yeneena copper and East Tropicana gold deposits,” the Minister said.

“In the past financial year alone, we have seen a bumper crop of finds, including gold at Alloy Resources' Horse Well, antimony mineralisation at Artemis Resources' Eastern Hills, zinc at Encounter Resources' Millennium and nickel at Panoramic Resources' Savannah North.

“Gold Road Resources also received funding under the scheme to drill a deep hole to help prove up its Gruyere gold discovery in the Yamarna greenstone belt.”

Marmion said that along with mining and energy jurisdictions in the rest of the world, Western Australia was experiencing challenging economic conditions, but noted that the state government was committed to investing in the future.

The state government has committed a further A$10-million a year to the scheme until the end of June 2017.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) on Thursday welcomed the latest round of investment, with CEO Simon Bennison saying that independent research had previously highlighted the value that the programme provided to the state.

He pointed out that with every A$1-million invested in the EIS programme, some A$10.3-million was generated in direct benefits to the state.

“Amec is pleased that the government has committed a further A$10-million per year to the scheme to June 2017. Amec will also be advocating for continuation of the very successful programme beyond 2017,” Bennison said.

He added that sourcing capital was extremely challenging in the current market conditions where investors were extremely risk adverse and not investing in exploration, adding that the continuation of the programme was essential to enable exploration companies to continue making new mineral discoveries.

“These discoveries should provide future government revenue streams as they are developed into operating mines and provide jobs and other economic and social dividends for Western Australians,” Bennison said.