PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has called on the state government to commit additional funding from its A$3-billion Covid-19 stimulus package to boost exploration in the region.
QRC CEO Ian Macfarlane on Monday said the government’s current Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI), including the recent A$10-million round matching industry investment, was paying dividends for Queensland.
“Exploration spending in Queensland increased almost A$100-million, or 30%, to A$408-million last financial year. Exploration spending was up across resource commodities last financial year.
“Exploration for coal was up 61% to A$222-million. Petroleum exploration was up 20% to A$233-million, gold was up 6% to A$71-million and copper was up 22% to A$72-million spent in 2019/20.
“Exploration gives us new resource discoveries, new resource projects, new resource investment, new resource jobs, new resource exports and ultimately new resource royalties for all Queenslanders.”
In June, QRC presented the government with a 40-point Resource Industry Recovery Agenda, and one of the proposals was a A$100-million four-year boost to the CEI.
The latest CEI round just three months ago in June was the largest to date, with over 145 applications. The initiative has been in place for 14 years, and over the past 10 years has provided funding to over 60 companies, with almost 50 significant mineral deposit discoveries in under-explored areas of the state.