Setting the PACE for 2018 and beyond...
It’s hot, dusty and remote. The nearest town is a few hours’ drive over rough terrain and wide-open plains; it is easy to understand why NASA comes to the South Australian outback to push the boundaries of their scientific and technical limits for their missions to Mars!
Under these challenging conditions, success at finding copper, gold, iron and other minerals is reserved for the very best and most committed professionals the world has to offer, driven by the insatiable thirst that knows there is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. South Australia’s prodigious Olympic Dam was found on a flat plain, devoid of any physical tell-tale signs of the enormity of what lay beneath, located right in the middle of our vast state.
Our enabling environment is the perfect host to a new wave of agile and adaptable exploration companies - junior explorers as they are known – who receive investor funding to explore in the hope of discovering the next large deposit in our minerals rich state. Today, many discoveries are found by junior explorers and are developed by either partnering with a major company, selling the rights to another, or sometimes - although rarely - developing alone.
Major deposit finds contribute significantly to the South Australian economy. The success of juniors relies on open access geological data, drilling co-funding and efficient licensing processes.
The Carrapateena project - currently underway by OZ Minerals - was discovered in 2005 by a junior explorer with a PACE funded drill hole. Stemming from a PACE co-funded initial investment of $340,000 to a junior explorer, a $916M project has commenced with significant investment back into the South Australian economy through equipment, goods and employment.
The recent Advertiser ‘Your Say’ survey identified jobs and job security as major concerns for South Australians. PACE co-funded exploration projects realise real benefits to our state and should be on a trajectory of growth; however, while PACE funding for mineral exploration increased from $5.6M in 2004 to $15.8M in 2015-16, the government has reduced it to approximately $1M per annum from 2018 through to 2021.
This is at a time when mineral exploration expenditure in South Australia has declined to just $49M from a peak in 2011-12 of $328M. Programs such as PACE are critical in low periods of a commodity cycle to ensure a sustainable pipeline of mineral projects.
All South Australians - whether political, investors, employers or community members - call for economic growth which increases employment and job security in our state, yet funding of a key program that has a proven track record of generating jobs has declined. The PACE initiative has provided a 185% return on investment and yielded major mineral discoveries such as Carrapateena.
Given the substantial return on investment provided by PACE, along with the increased competition for mining investment from other jurisdictions, SACOME advocates for the continuation of PACE Minerals funding.
As our sector is now coming into a critical part of this new commodity cycle, we need an increase in funding to incentivise drilling activity by industry. Our state sits on enviable mineral deposits that promise to deliver a pipeline of top tier mineral extraction projects.
To encourage these projects, South Australia needs a significant increase in the funding model with grant funding of $4M per annum to industry to support the backbone of our resources sector – our resolute Junior Explorers.
It’s hot, dusty and remote. The nearest town is a few hours’ drive over rough terrain and wide-open plains; it is easy to understand why NASA comes to the South Australian outback to push the boundaries of their scientific and technical limits for their missions to Mars!
Under these challenging conditions, success at finding copper, gold, iron and other minerals is reserved for the very best and most committed professionals the world has to offer, driven by the insatiable thirst that knows there is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. South Australia’s prodigious Olympic Dam was found on a flat plain, devoid of any physical tell-tale signs of the enormity of what lay beneath, located right in the middle of our vast state.
Our enabling environment is the perfect host to a new wave of agile and adaptable exploration companies - junior explorers as they are known – who receive investor funding to explore in the hope of discovering the next large deposit in our minerals rich state. Today, many discoveries are found by junior explorers and are developed by either partnering with a major company, selling the rights to another, or sometimes - although rarely - developing alone.
Major deposit finds contribute significantly to the South Australian economy. The success of juniors relies on open access geological data, drilling co-funding and efficient licensing processes.
The Carrapateena project - currently underway by OZ Minerals - was discovered in 2005 by a junior explorer with a PACE funded drill hole. Stemming from a PACE co-funded initial investment of $340,000 to a junior explorer, a $916M project has commenced with significant investment back into the South Australian economy through equipment, goods and employment.
The recent Advertiser ‘Your Say’ survey identified jobs and job security as major concerns for South Australians. PACE co-funded exploration projects realise real benefits to our state and should be on a trajectory of growth; however, while PACE funding for mineral exploration increased from $5.6M in 2004 to $15.8M in 2015-16, the government has reduced it to approximately $1M per annum from 2018 through to 2021.
This is at a time when mineral exploration expenditure in South Australia has declined to just $49M from a peak in 2011-12 of $328M. Programs such as PACE are critical in low periods of a commodity cycle to ensure a sustainable pipeline of mineral projects.
All South Australians - whether political, investors, employers or community members - call for economic growth which increases employment and job security in our state, yet funding of a key program that has a proven track record of generating jobs has declined. The PACE initiative has provided a 185% return on investment and yielded major mineral discoveries such as Carrapateena.
Given the substantial return on investment provided by PACE, along with the increased competition for mining investment from other jurisdictions, SACOME advocates for the continuation of PACE Minerals funding.
As our sector is now coming into a critical part of this new commodity cycle, we need an increase in funding to incentivise drilling activity by industry. Our state sits on enviable mineral deposits that promise to deliver a pipeline of top tier mineral extraction projects.
To encourage these projects, South Australia needs a significant increase in the funding model with grant funding of $4M per annum to industry to support the backbone of our resources sector – our resolute Junior Explorers.