World’s largest mineral exploration collaboration launched
Date: Oct 16, 2018
A $218 million research organisation designed to develop mineral-discovery technologies has been launched by South Australian Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan.
The MinEx Cooperative Research Centre (MinEx CRC) will focus on developing technologies that unlock the value of mineral deposits that lie beneath deep rock cover, and enhance the productivity of drilling with a simultaneous data collection capability.
The CRC has received $50 million in Federal Government CRC funding, on top of $165 million backing from its 34 mining and mining equipment, technology and services (METS) participants over the next 10 years. The companies include BHP, South32, Anglo American and Barrick.
MinEx CRC chairman Chris Pigram said the launch was instigated by the decline in the discovery of new mineral deposits, which poses a threat to Australia’s economy.
“There are few, if any, major new mineral deposits that are exposed at the earth’s surface yet to be found in Australia, and as a result, mineral exploration is moving from Australia to less well explored countries,” he said.
“Today (October 15) is an exciting day for Australia’s mining and resources sector, as we begin meeting the technical challenge of finding deposits in a more cost-effective way.”
Australia’s share of global mineral exploration is now (12.5 per cent), which is half of that in the 1990s (25 per cent). This was partly caused by an increase in cost of drilling over the past 20 years.
