Round 18 of Co-funded Drilling Program provides more than $5.3 million for 40 drilling projects
| Date: | Wednesday, 05 December 2018 |
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Round 18 of the Exploration Incentive Scheme’s (EIS) Co-funded Drilling Program, opened last week by Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston, will provide $5.3 million to 40 projects to be drilled in 2019.
The round attracted 73 applications – an increase of about 16 per cent on the previous round.
“This is a substantial increase in exploration activities in Western Australia,” Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety EIS Coordinator Dr Charlotte Hall said.
“Application numbers were up in Round 17, so this continuing rise seen in Round 18 is an encouraging sign of growth in exploration.”
Dr Hall said that several of the successful applicants had used EIS precompetitive science to refine drilling targets in the Nullarbor and Albany Fraser regions.
The co-funding for projects stretching across the State will support exploration for gold, base metals, petroleum, nickel, lithium, rare earth elements, potash and diamonds.
Recent EIS discoveries include Bellevue Gold Mining’s gold lode north of Leinster and Independence Group’s significant copper-zinc drilling intercept at Fraser Range, north-east of Esperance.
The next round for co-funded applications will open Friday, 22 February 2019.
For more information, including a list of the successful applicants and a map of their projects, visit the EIS web page.
