Tenement uptake Stimulating company activity

drilling rig and equipment at Euroli

More companies are acknowledging how our data and products are supporting their exploration and investment decisions. 

The Exploring for the Future program is stimulating industry investment by delivering publicly available pre-competitive geoscience data and knowledge on Australia’s minerals, energy and groundwater resource potential.  

One way Geoscience Australia is evaluating the impact of the Exploring for the Future program is by tracking new exploration tenements that have been taken up, at least in part, due to program activities.  

Northern Territory 

Renewed investment in the region between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa represents the first of many investments in ‘greenfield’ areas that have not been previously explored. The area has seen a significant increase in the number of minerals exploration tenements since 2018. As of May 2022, there are approximately 35 companies in the region that have acknowledged the contribution of Exploring for the Future data, covering an area of around 179,000 km2 (see the comparison maps below). 

Due to the limited audience of this diagram and its complexity, no alternative description has been provided. Please email clientservices@ga.gov.au

A map showing where new investment has occurred as a result of the Exploring for the Future program, making new data available for industry use (current as at June 2020)

Due to the limited audience of this diagram and its complexity, no alternative description has been provided. Please email clientservices@ga.gov.au

A map showing where new investment has occurred as a result of the Exploring for the Future program, making new data available for industry use (current as at October 2021)

Companies have cited Geoscience Australia mapping, drilling and analysis programs in collaboration with the Northern Territory Geological Survey and MinEx CRC as a primary reason for working in the Northern Territory. 

In the Carrara Range, South Nicholson region of the Northern Territory, an Australian resource company announced that they acquired an exploration tenement over a manganese oxide occurrence, adding to their regional emphasis on exploration for battery metals. The company explicitly noted the discovery was made by Geoscience Australia geologists during Exploring for the Future program field operations in 2018 and emphasised the highly prospective nature of the Carrara Range Project for sediment-hosted battery metals. 

South Australia 

In South Australia, 23 new tenements for the exploration of natural hydrogen, covering over 200,000 km2, have been taken up or applied for since May 2021 by 6 companies, with 35,000 km2 directly attributed to the 2021 Exploring for the Future APPEA paper that reported on Australia’s natural hydrogen occurrences, sources and potential resources in the area. 

New tenements in South Australia and New South Wales attributed in part to the Exploring for the Future program

New tenements in South Australia and New South Wales as of February 2022 attributed in part to the Exploring for the Future program 

Queensland 

In Queensland, there has been recent take up of a mineral exploration licence in the Adavale Basin, prompted by the 2021 launch of the Hydrogen Economic Fairways Tool (HEFT), supported through the Exploring for the Future program and the identified need for hydrogen storage. This licence targets known halite (salt) deposits due to their ability to function as a future commercial-scale hydrogen storage facility. 

New South Wales 

As of March 2022, explorers are also beginning to move into the area covered by both the NSW-funded Mundi AEM and the Eastern Corridor AEM used to help locate new permit applications. Two companies, located in the Broken Hill region, acknowledge the usefulness of Geoscience Australia data for minerals exploration while taking up approximately 5,000 km2