The NSW Government has made access to geoscientific data for explorers faster with the release of reports carried out in the state.
Deputy Secretary for Mining, Exploration and Geoscience Georgia Beattie announced a plan last Friday to release annual reports in May 2022 after the introduction of a five year confidentiality period on reports to the NSW Mining Regulation in 2016.
Ms Beattie said licence holders can now retain exclusive access to the high quality information and data in their reports for the first five years before geoscientific information is publicly released back to industry.
“Previously, if a company held an exploration licence for a parcel of land for an extended period of time, data collected from exploration activities carried out could have been locked up for a decade – that’s no longer the case.”
She added that the annual report release is a key action in the NSW Government’s 2018 Minerals Strategy and is expected to encourage greater mineral exploration and support economic growth in NSW.
“Exploring companies will now be able to access the valuable new data and information, which will help to reduce investment risk and increase success rates.”
Ms Beattie said Mining, Exploration and Geoscience consulted extensively with industry to determine which information should be made public and which commercial information should stay private for the benefit of companies.
“Striking the right balance between protecting sensitive information and releasing quality data has been a priority in the lead up to this report release and we’ve worked to ensure companies can make the most of their own investments,” she continued.
“We have incorporated industry feedback and authority holders will now have six months to request redactions for certain information before historical annual reports are released early next year.”