The Northern TerritoryGovernment is continuing to drive economic development and create jobs with thegranting of the latest round of Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations grants.
The grants program formspart of the $26 million Resourcing the Territory initiative and aims toincrease the intensity of exploration drilling and geophysical data ingreenfield areas of the Northern Territory.
More than $1 million worthof grants were delivered for this round of the program to fund 13 projects fromnine companies.
Thesuccessful applicants are Primary Gold Pty Ltd, Vimy Resources Pty Ltd, DevExResources Limited, Newcrest Mining Limited, Prodigy Gold NL, Independence GroupNL, Emmerson Resources Limited, Asian Minerals Pty Ltd and Northern StarResources Limited.
Eightof the successful applicants will put their funding towards drilling surveys,while the other five grant winners have committed to geophysical surveys.
Someof the drilling programs are testing deep targets that may represent buriedmineral deposits, while others are designed to sample deep geology that canhelp industry understand where deposits may occur.
Thefive geophysical surveys are testing the use of innovative methods to targetwhere mineral deposits may occur deep beneath sand and soil cover inunderexplored parts of the Territory. These projects are targeting a wide rangeof commodities including gold, copper, uranium, manganese, diamonds and nickel.
The program provides collaborativefunding of 50 per cent up to $125,000 per project of the total costs fordrilling and geophysical programs by industry in areas of the NT where there isa relative lack of geological information.
As stated by Minister for Primary Industry and Resources, Paul Kirby:
TheResourcing the Territory initiativeis the biggest investment by any Territory Government into programs to attractand support resources exploration in the Territory, which will stimulate theeconomy and create jobs.
The program aims to address gaps in the criticalunderstanding of the geology of the NT and encourage projects that may open up new areas forexploration and ensure the data is made available to the wider exploration community.
I congratulate the successful applicants of the program and am confidentthe funding will provide an important leg-up towards further exploration todiscover more of the Territorys valuable natural resources.
