Nine exploration companies will head to the North West Minerals Province to find new deposits of copper, gold and base metals, thanks to the latest round of exploration grants, worth $1.13M.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The nine companies are Sector Projects, Footprint Resources, Red Metal. Chinova, Aeon Walford Creek, Minotaur, Topdrill, Capricorn Copper and Findex will share in $1.13 million and Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dr Anthony Lynham said there were positive flow-on effects for local business.
“Funding through the Collaborative Exploration Initiative allows companies to kick-start projects that may have never have got off the ground due to the costs and risks involved in exploring in remote regions of Queensland,” Dr Lynham said.
“We have to get innovative if we are going to get these projects moving, and the Collaborative Exploration Initiative is an excellent example of how a small investment reaps big rewards. That’s why we’ve expanded the program to include other forms of exploration like geophysics and geochemistry not just traditional drilling methods.”
READ ALSO: Boost for exploration in the North West
“Queensland explorers are using the complete array of techniques to make discoveries and so the funding initiative has been updated the reflect this,” Dr Lynham said.
The program has generated 48 new mineralisation discoveries over the past 10 years, including a contribution towards Australia’s largest copper-cobalt resource by Aeon Metals, and the Maronan deposit worth up to $9 billion.