PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The federal government’s Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) has again been oversubscribed, with 43 companies successfully applying for the A$30-million of available credits for the 2019/20 year, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) said on Friday.
The JMEI is a tax credit arrangement, which allows mineral exploration companies that have no mining income to raise capital and to renounce and pass future tax deductions to their Australian resident investors.
The money raised must be spent on greenfield mineral exploration in Australia.
“Reaching the JMEI cap shows the importance of this initiative to the mineral exploration sector,” said Amec CEO Warren Pearce.
“Amec played a leading role in the JMEI being implemented and funded with A$100-million over four years and will be advocating for an extension and an increase in the funding allocation.”
Since its commencement, 112 applications have been able to access A$70-million of credit allocations, with a further A$30-million available in the final round.
The next round of the the JMEI opens on June 1, 2020, and it will be filled on a first in, first served approach.