Record interest in minerals exploration continues to deliver economic benefits and skilled employment across regional Victoria.
Earth Resources Regulation, Victoria's mining and resources regulator, has more than 350 current applications for new minerals licenses, renewals, transfers and variations. In 2018-19 it received less than 100 new applications for the whole year.
To support the processing of the unprecedented number of licensing applications, Minister for Resources Jaclyn Symes has announced $1.1 million to employ additional licensing assessment staff.
The announcement was made by the Minister for Resources during a visit to a minerals exploration site at Fosterville North, where she viewed low-impact exploration activity such as rock sampling and exploratory drilling.
These activities were conducted by Deepcore Drilling, a Bendigo-based company that has seen its employment levels quadruple since the start of 2018. The company has hired an extra 50 people since March 2020, expects to hire 30 more by Christmas and plans to employ an additional 120 people across regional Victoria in 2021.
Minister for Resources media release: Minerals Development A Gold Mine For Regional Jobs
