The Australian Labor Party has announced that, if elected in the upcoming May federal election, they will invest $75 million in Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future initiative.
Exploring for the Future is a $100.5 million initiative by the Australian Government dedicated to boosting investment in resource exploration in Australia.
The program focuses on gathering new data and information about the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources concealed beneath the surface.
Last year the program spent $40 million across 150 small to medium enterprises – mostly in Western Australia, Queensland, and the Northern Territory – to deploy cutting edge technology to help make an underground mining map of Australia.
Jason Clare MP, Member for Blaxland, said that two-thirds of Australia’s potential mineral deposits remain undiscovered because they lie below the surface and could not be explored until the advent of new technology like ground penetrating radar, big data and machine learning – all deployed by the Exploring for the Future program.
“While the world is discovering ‘Tier 1’ deposits at a rate of three a year, Australia has not made a Tier 1 discovery since 2005,” he detailed.
“This program has delivered important successes – like showing the South Nicholson Basin north of Mt Isa is three times larger than previously thought and highlighting potential new gold and copper deposits in Tennant Creek.”
The commitment forms a part of Labor’s Future Mines and Jobs Plan, which includes:
- Establishing the Australian Future Mines Centre to coordinate exploration work and lead the scientific research and development necessary to explore under deep cover as part of a $23 million Australian Research Council Special Research initiative.
- Providing $2 million to support 100 new scholarships for mining engineers, with 50 of them for women.
- Delivering an industry data and skills road map.
- Developing a Resources White Paper, to deliver the long-term vision across government for the resource sector as recommended by the bipartisan Resources 2030 Taskforce Report.
The news of the $75 million investment was welcomed by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) and the Queensland Resources Council (QRC).
Chief Executive Officer of the MCA, Tania Constable said investment in pre-competitive geoscience exploration is essential in building a pipeline of mining projects that will deliver jobs in the minerals sector across regional Australia into the future.
“This commitment will fund vital data acquisition using geophysical surveys, geochemical sampling, hydrological mapping and stratigraphic drilling.”
“The data collected will be analysed and integrated to provide a comprehensive picture of Australia’s mineral, energy and groundwater resources, which will support investment decision making allowing Australian companies to expand commercial opportunities and create more jobs,” Ms Constable commented.
QRC Chief Executive, Ian Macfarlane also said that prior to the election, the QRC urged the Coalition and Labor to embrace this opportunity.
“Any investment in additional investigation for resources, like $75 million for a road map for a new generation of mines, will help deliver new discoveries, new investment, new exports and new jobs for Queensland.”
