PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior explorers have welcomed the passage of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive) Bill 2017 through the Senate, with the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) saying it was an important amendment to the tax law to support junior explorers and encourage private investment into greenfield exploration across Australia.
The Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) is a tax credit arrangement, which allows mineral exploration companies that have no mining income, to renounce and pass future tax deductions to their Australian resident investors.
The Bill must now return to the House of Representatives to agree to amendments made in the Senate.
The passage of the Bill demonstrates the clear support in the Parliament for this legislation, Amec CEO Warren Pearce said on Monday.
“The decline in greenfields exploration over the last decade is a significant concern, and one that threatens to undermine the future growth of the mining industry in Australia,” he said, adding that the JMEI was “desperately” needed to support Australian mineral exploration.
“Amec has fought long and hard for the realisation of this legislation. We are extremely pleased to see that both the major parties recognise the need for this legislation and support the passage of the Bill,” said Pearce.