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OPERATIONAL REVIEW
DIGGeRs & DeALeRs PReVIeW MACA.NET.AU

Around the grounds

I t has been a transformational period of late for Australia’s Tasmania

resources and mining sector with a new Federal Cabinet
“Resources, particularly the mining
sworn in and state budgets delivered. While Western Australia and mineral processing sector, pro-
accounts for 60% of the country’s exploration spend, plenty is vide the lion’s share of our exports by
happening elsewhere in the country to grow the various arms value, accounting for more than 60%
of our record $4.6 billon export earn-
of the sector. ings for the 12 months to March 2022,”
Tasmanian Minister for Resources Guy
Fraser Palamara provides a snapshot of the key movements Barnett said in June.
around the states. Tasmania’s resources and minerals pro-
cessing sector is currently estimated to
support more than 10,000 direct and indi-
South Australia timeframes and an increase in application rect jobs throughout the State.
Following Tasmania’s 2022-23 Budget,
fees which have not resulted in increased
South Australian Treasurer Stephen commerciality or quicker turnarounds,” $1 million was pledged for the sector. Up to
$800,000 of that will be spent over the next
Mullighan delivered his first State Knol said. “A circuit breaker is desperately four years on the Government’s Mineral
Budget in early June, following the required to address this escalating issue.” Resource Tasmania institute. This funding
election success of Labor Premier Pe- Association of Mining and Exploration will largely go towards enhancing services
ter Malinauskas. Companies (AMEC) chief executive War- and information.
Mullighan unveiled a $233 million sur- ren Pearce was particularly impressed by The Tasmanian Government recently
plus in the 2022-23 Budget, an outper- MERS. pledged $2 million for a network power
formance of February’s forecast of $94 “We anticipate MERS will, in the long system surrounding Group 6 Metals Ltd’s
million. As South Australia has looked to run, improve the process and make it sim- Dolphin tungsten mine. The newest budget
foster its resources sector, a number of as- pler, faster and cheaper for proponents contributes to the remaining $1 million of
sociations in the industry have lauded the while maintaining rigorous high stand- that pledge.
new budget. ards,” he said.
Highlights of the budget include main- On the construction front, more than
tained and new spending on the Acceler- $100 million will be spent on regional and
ated Discovery Initiative, the Mining Ex- remote road maintenance for South Aus-
ploration Regulation System, Regional & tralia’s roads network that sprawls roughly
Remote Road Maintenance, development 10,000km.
of critical mineral datasets and Landowner Like other Australian state governments
Information Services. and those abroad, South Australia’s new
“Exploration is critical to ensuring a budget has signalled an importance on
future pipeline of resource projects in future-facing critical minerals.
South Australia and key to increasing the Up to $2.5 million will be spent over two
resource sector’s already-significant eco- years to develop new geological datasets The Tasmanian Government recently pledged
nomic contribution to the State,” South on critical minerals, an initiative SACOME $2 million for a network power system
Australian Chamber of Mines & Energy described as “long overdue”. surrounding the Dolphin tungsten mine
(SACOME) chief executive Rebecca Knol “The occurrence of critical minerals in
said. South Australia is not uniformly under-
According to SACOME, the South Aus- stood,” Knol said. “There is an urgent need Victoria
tralian Government received $311 million to align opportunities in critical mineral pro-
in mining royalties in FY2020. ject development, R&D activity, advanced Next door in Victoria, the State Budg-
SACOME expects the newest funding manufacturing and related upstream pro- et revealed in early May a noticeably
for the Accelerated Discovery Initiative, cessing activity.” lesser focus on mineral exploration
first established in 2004, to pay for itself South Australia also recently ranked as than its counterparts but the Minerals
with every $1 million invested churning out the 10th most attractive jurisdiction in the Council of Australia (MCA) commend-
an additional $23 million in benefits. world for mining investments, according to ed $7.5 million of spending planned for
Meanwhile, $6.4 million over three years a 2021 survey by the Fraser Institute. the critical minerals industry.
will be spent on a new and automated “The new Budget includes a raft of The money will support a minerals devel-
Mining Exploration Regulation System measures to stimulate the investment in opment grants programme and develop-
(MERS) to streamline approvals for explo- South Australian mining and mineral explo- ment of geoscience data.
ration and mining projects. ration to deliver long-term, wide-ranging “[This will] provide important support for
“Over the past four years, SACOME’s benefits to the community,” Pearce said. Victoria’s opportunity in critical minerals
member companies have been subject such as rare earths and lithium to embed
to a blow-out in departmental approval Victoria in renewable energy supply chains,”

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