The call has gone out to mining companies around the world to lodge proposals for joint funding as part of the hugely successful Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) initiative in South Australia.

Minister for Mineral Resources Development Paul Holloway says the program has established South Australia’s international credentials as a destination for mineral exploration investment.

“Since its launch in 2004, this program has led to an unprecedented boost in mineral exploration activity in this State,” Mr Holloway says.

“Before the introduction of Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE), average annual spending on mining exploration in South Australia was just $30 million.

“The State Government’s $31 million investment in all Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) programs in the past five years has driven annual spending on mineral exploration to more than $220 million in the year to June 2009.”

Most recently Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) has contributed directly to the discovery of:

• IronClad Mining Limited’s magnetite iron ore project Hercules
• Iluka Resources’ heavy mineral sands prospect Dromedary on the Eyre Peninsula
• Lynch Mining’s iron ore intersections at the Bramfield Prospect on the Western Eyre Peninsula and
• Teale and Associates’ Prospect Hill tin and base metal intercepts in the northern Flinders Ranges.

Mr Holloway says the Government hopes to receive a record number of high calibre submissions between now and the January 28, 2010 deadline.

“The Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) initiative is now recognised throughout Australia and around the world as a highly successful way of stimulating new mineral discoveries and attracting investment,” Mr Holloway says.

Between 2004 to 2009, a total of 335 proposals were received, resulting in 168 successful submissions sharing $10 million of funding.

These collaborative drilling projects were spread across all regions of the State, targeting a wide range of commodities.

Eligible Expenditure

Government grant funding is only supplied for direct drillings costs (including mobilisation and demobilisation), and not for ancillary or associated exploration services (e.g. land access, project management, analytical or other geoscientific costs).
Government grant funding for successful proposals will not exceed 50% of the total proposed direct drilling costs. The maximum possible allocation for any one project funded by PACE will be up to the value of $AUD 100,000. Funding from PACE will not exceed the agreed amount.

Focus of PACE project

The project must focus on promoting greenfield sites including:

• Addresses significant knowledge gaps or critical uncertainties in the State’s geological information (e.g. depth to basement, stratigraphy, age, structural relationships, geophysical target resolution).
• Drill targets in remote parts of the State.
• Drill targets in under explored areas of the State.
• Project adds significant geological information about the basement under cover.
• Project potentially stimulates a new generation of mineral discoveries and further enhances the State’s mineral prospectivity and exploration investmentopportunities.

The project must focus on promoting new and/or credible under‐utilised exploration technology

• Validates innovative applications of credible exploration technologies/
  techniques.
• Uses a style of drilling that maximises information gain.
• The proposal validates new geophysical and geochemical models/ methods/
  applications.
• Includes petrophysical or downhole geophysical measurements.

Closing date for applications is 28 January 2010

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