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Creating Jobs: Exploration Grants Awarded

Office of the Chief Minister

The Northern Territory Government is continuing to drive economic development and create jobs with the granting of the latest round of Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations grants.

The grants program forms part of the $26 million Resourcing the Territory initiative and aims to increase the intensity of exploration drilling and geophysical data in greenfield areas of the Northern Territory.

More than $1 million worth of grants were delivered for this round of the program to fund 13 projects from nine companies.

The successful applicants are Primary Gold Pty Ltd, Vimy Resources Pty Ltd, DevEx Resources Limited, Newcrest Mining Limited, Prodigy Gold NL, Independence Group NL, Emmerson Resources Limited, Asian Minerals Pty Ltd and Northern Star Resources Limited.

Eight of the successful applicants will put their funding towards drilling surveys, while the other five grant winners have committed to geophysical surveys.

Some of the drilling programs are testing deep targets that may represent buried mineral deposits, while others are designed to sample deep geology that can help industry understand where deposits may occur.

The five geophysical surveys are testing the use of innovative methods to target where mineral deposits may occur deep beneath sand and soil cover in underexplored parts of the Territory. These projects are targeting a wide range of commodities including gold, copper, uranium, manganese, diamonds and nickel.

The program provides collaborative funding of 50 per cent up to $125,000 per project of the total costs for drilling and geophysical programs by industry in areas of the NT where there is a relative lack of geological information.

Quotes from Minister for Primary Industry and Resources, Paul Kirby:

The Resourcing the Territory initiative is the biggest investment by any Territory Government into programs to attract and support resources exploration in the Territory, which will stimulate the economy and create jobs.

“The program aims to address gaps in the critical understanding of the geology of the NT and encourage projects that may open up new areas for exploration and ensure the data is made available to the wider exploration community.

“I congratulate the successful applicants of the program and am confident the funding will provide an important leg-up towards further exploration to discover more of the Territory’s valuable natural resources.”   

Media Contact: Carl Pfeiffer 0417 910 720


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