Supporting explorers in resourcing the future
Kim Wainwright, Chair, Queensland Exploration Council
T
he Queensland exploration industry has had an incredible year. It hasn’t been without its challenges, yet the sentiment amongst our membership is infectiously positive. We know the resources sector is cyclical and exploration in particular tends to be the barometer of the health of the broader resources industry. So, what is the barometer saying right now? At the end of every year, the Queensland Exploration Council publishes its Exploration Scorecard, measuring and comparing explorer member sentiment, which includes drillers, in a range of areas such as policy, government support and access to capital. In some areas, we compare our findings with other Australian jurisdictions which always brings up interesting results. The 2021 Exploration Scorecard is launched in the first week of December and will be the 11th consecutive edition. Let’s start with the challenges, which are thankfully far outweighed by the positives of this past year. Most of them come back to COVID-19 related issues and are not unique to the exploration
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BBMC Yearbook 2021
sector. Our members have experienced staffing issues, particularly around moving staff across state borders. More broadly, there is also a shortage of skilled workers, exacerbated by border issues but also due to no overseas workers coming into Queensland or Australia. Having said this, the support from the State Government to the exploration sector, in the form of rental fees waived and exploration program variations, has been a lifeline for many explorers. The good news is that over a third of our explorer members have indicated they expect to increase their exploration activity spending by more than 25% in 2022. It's clear the resources sector has a leading role to play in the state’s economic recovery from COVID-19 and the exploration industry is central to this recovery. The aptly-themed 2021 Exploration Scorecard “Resourcing the Future” highlights that, despite the challenges presented over the past 18 months, Queensland exploration companies are full steam ahead fulfilling their work programs and in many cases doing more activity than expected in their work programs. It’s no surprise drill rigs are hard to secure and our labs are busy months in advance analysing results. The latest data from the Australian Drilling Industry Association reveals an increase in exploration rigs working across the country from 621 to 755 which is now a utilisation rate of 85% (2011 saw utilisation rates of 90%). There are three factors driving this – a perfect trifecta:
1) Access to capital - for the first time in the Scorecard’s 11-year history, Queensland explorers have shown positive sentiment towards access to investment capital. This is an outstanding result and shows explorers have the confidence that their projects will be backed by the investment required in their search for Queensland’s next big discovery. This wave of investment is centered on critical minerals. In its recent World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund highlighted nickel, copper, lithium and cobalt as key commodities essential to the global energy transition, predicting a surge in demand and price. It’s no surprise that Queensland’s thriving prospectivity means these commodities, among others, such as vanadium, rare earths and graphite, are all here ready to be unearthed. 2) Access to data - the release of precompetitive geoscience data by the Geological Survey of Queensland continues to be ranked as one of the top three government initiatives providing benefits to exploration companies in 2020-21. Last year saw the first implementation of the Geoscience Data Modernisation Project which will provide further open access to pre-competitive geoscience data. With the first new releases of data under this project earlier this year, it’s no surprise we are now witnessing an increase in the amount of mineral acreage being taken up in the state.
