Round 8 opens for QLD resources exploration grants

Queensland has opened up round 8 of the Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) with a focus on critical minerals.

A total of $4.6m in grants is up for grabs and applications close on January 11 next year.

The CEI program builds on the Queensland Critical Minerals Strategy and has reduced rent for new and existing exploration permits for minerals to $0 for the next five years, which is worth $55 million.

It also builds on the Queensland Government’s $5b Copperstring 2032 project which will help unlock potentially $500b of critical mineral projects in the North West Minerals Province.

Queensland Resources Minister Scott Stewart says the CEI grants program continue to back the resources sector and the State’s explorers.

“Exploration is the lifeblood of the resources industry and the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the confidence explorers have in Queensland,” he said.

“To the end of June overall exploration was up 4.4% to $770.6m, with exploration for copper deposits up 16.7%.

“We know the mineral exploration projects being done today have the potential to be our mining projects of the future which is why these grants are so important.

“Queensland has significant resources of the critical minerals the world needs to decarbonise and through these grants, we are helping back companies to find those deposits.

“If we are to build a decarbonised economy, we need explorers to take the risks to find that next big deposit especially in critical minerals.

“That’s why the [Queensland] Government is proud of its record supporting the resources industry and our explorers who are key to establishing new projects in the future.”

Critical minerals are required to make solar panels, turbines, batteries and other technologies for Queensland’s Energy and Jobs Plan and the global transition.