MinEx CRC chief executive Andrew Bailey, South Australia Energy and Mining minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan , and MinEx CRC chairman Chris Pigram.
BY JESSICA CUMMINS
A NEW $218 million research collaboration has launched in Adelaide that will develop new technologies to increase the discovery of mineral deposits across the country.
The MinEx Cooperative Research Centre (MinEx CRC) was opened at the Australian Geoscience Council Convention in Adelaide on 15 October.
The centre, backed by a $50 million Federal Government grant, was a collaboration between 34 companies in the Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) and majors including BHP, South32, Anglo American and Barrick, which will commit $165 million over the next decade.
It would also be supported by research organisations including the CSIRO, University of Adelaide, Curtin University, University of South Australia, the University of Western Australia, University of Newcastle, and Geoscience Australia.
MinEx chairman Chris Pigram said the decision to open the centre was driven by the declining discovery of new mineral deposits, which posed a threat to the Australian 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,” Mr Pigram said.
“Today 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.”
The country’s share of global mineral exploration has declined exponentially from about 25 per cent in the 1990s to 12.5 per cent currently due to issues such as the increased cost of drilling.
MinEx CRC chief executive officer Andrew Bailey said Australia had the chance to reverse the trend.
“We will develop new exploration tools and new ways to deploy them, recognising the fundamental importance of collecting data from the subsurface,” he said.
“Lowering the cost of drilling, while gathering critical exploration data, means we can drill more holes and discover more deposits.”
