Mining companies can benefit from a number of initiatives recently announced across Australia.

In Tasmania, an Exploration Drilling Grant Initiative (EDGI) funded $2 million has been allocated in this year’s State Budget to support the increased development of new mining opportunities in Tasmania.

Grants will be used to fund up to 50 per cent of direct drilling costs incurred on successful programs.

State Minister for Resources Guy Barnett said the announcements follows previous support to the industry via $3.5 million in payroll tax relief for the Avebury mine, with the aim to have the mine back in production from January 2019 and $9.5 million to the Mt Lyell copper mine for essential works to progress the mine to operation.

Applications open on Monday 6 September for the EDGI with further details available here.

In Western Australia, an incentive scheme is rekindling diamond exploration in the Kimberley region.

Cutting-edge geoscience, funded by the State Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS), has sparked new exploration for diamonds in state’s Kimberley region.

Junior explorers are using the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety’s Geological Survey of WA (GSWA) geoscience datasets and geological information to identify targets for diamond exploration.

This report contains data from more than 88,000 diamond exploration samples and 30,000 high-quality mineral chemical analyses.

For more information on the EIS, click here.

In South Australia, new information from the Geological Survey of South Australia (GSSA) and the CSIRO, will give explorers a head start on their exploration programs and save precious time and money.

The data focuses on rock depth in the highly prospective Gawler Craton – the oldest and largest geological province in South Australia, covering approximately 440 000km2 of central South Australia.

The information is set to boost mining exploration includes depths of prospective source rocks in the Gawler Craton, paving the way for more accurate and less cost prohibitive exploration.

It is the first data release of rock depth from the Gawler Craton Airborne Survey.

The free package of enriched analytical data aligns with historical drilling results captured from one of the Survey’s first focus zones of the region, and is the first of 16 packages the Geological Survey to be rolled out in the next 12 months.

The information is available on two open platforms, the Gawler Craton Airborne Survey Community Information website  and SARIG.