Victoria approves record number of exploration licences by: Olga...

Victoria approves record number of exploration licences

by: Olga Galacho
From: Herald Sun
June 14, 2012 12:00AM



MIning

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THE State Government is approving a record number of exploration licences as Victoria feverishly chases the spoils of the mining boom.

An investigation by BusinessDaily reveals the number of licences handed out to explore for minerals in Victoria has soared since 2010.

In just 18 months since the Baillieu Government took office, 95 exploration licences have been approved - equal to the total approved in the last three years of the previous administration.

The Government is issuing licences at a rate of about 60 a year, or fivefold the 20-year average.

Among the newcomers now permitted to search for coal, coal-seam gas, gold and other minerals are Mantle Mining, Mecrus Resources and Commonwealth Mining.

They join established miners such as Iluka Resources, Lakes Oil and Dart Mining in projects that span most of the state.

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The permits are concentrated in the southeast, where prospectors are searching for coal-seam gas deposits suitable to tap.

But the sharp increase in the number of approved licences is yet to translate to a dramatic rise in the sum spent on minerals exploration in Victoria, official figures reveal.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures published yesterday show $13.2 million was spent on exploration for minerals in Victoria in the three months to March.

The sum is just 1.5 per cent of the $876 million spent on minerals exploration nationally in the quarter.

Only Tasmanian explorers spent less. West Australian investment accounted for the lion's share at $490 million, as miners sought new deposits to cash in on the resources boom.

Nearly $200 million was spent searching for minerals in Queensland.

Victoria was the only state where investment was stagnant compared with the same quarter a year ago. In all other states, exploration spending grew.

Next month a report to the Government is due, examining the level of interest in unallocated coal deposits.

It will follow last month's inquiry into greenfield exploration, which made 25 recommendations to make it easier for miners to tap the state's resources. State Liberal MP Neale Burgess, who chaired the committee that conducted the probe, said Victoria's share of exploration spending had fallen in the middle of a resources boom.

Mr Burgess said there was evidence regulation of the Victorian exploration and mining industries "had become increasingly difficult to navigate, costly in both time and money and in need of simplification".

Despite the surge in licence approvals, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies said in its submission to the inquiry that there was a perception Victoria was "closed for business".