MinEx CRC Funded

The Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation, Zed Seselja, and Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, announced $50 million of Australian Government funding for MinEx CRC.

MinEx CRC is a major endeavour comprising:

• $50M cash from the CRC Programme
• $41M cash from geological surveys and from industry
• $49M non-staff in-kind
• $78M or 311FTE staff in-kind
• TOTAL $218M

MinEx CRC’s research will include:

• Developing more productive, safer and environmentally-friendly drilling methods to discover and drill-out deposits, including coiled tubing drilling technology.
• Developing new technologies for collecting data while drilling, bringing forward mine production.
• Implementation of a National Drilling Initiative (NDI) - a world-first collaboration of Geological Surveys, researchers and industry that will undertake drilling in under-explored areas of potential mineral wealth in Australia.

Congratulations to all involved with the Bid.  We are delighted at this success and its scale.  MinEx CRC will, at its commencement, be approximately twice the size that DET CRC was at its commencement.  MinEx CRC’s 34 current participants are listed below.  Additional sponsors may apply to join MinEx CRC.  If you are interested please refer to the attached and contact Andrew Bailey or www.minexcrc.com.au.

The MinEx CRC announcement was followed by a National Press Club speech by Minister Canavan which announced the commissioning of a ‘National Resources Statement’ to address the challenges facing the sector including the need to make new mineral and energy discoveries.  The National Resources Statement is to be delivered by a very well credentialed ‘Resources 2030 Taskforce’ within six months.

The MinEx CRC’s current participants are: Anglo American, Barrick Gold, BHP, South32, Atlas Copco, Geotec Boyles, HiSeis, Imdex, LKAB Wassara, McKay, Olympus, Sandvik, Geoscience Australia, Geological Surveys of NSW, SA and WA, Curtin University, Universities of Adelaide, Newcastle, South Australia and Western Australia, MRIWA and CSIRO.

Current MinEx CRC Affiliates are Investigator, Minotaur, DataCode, Minalyze, Mudlogic, Southern Geoscience, Geological Surveys of NT, Queensland and Victoria, Mineral Resources Tasmania and the SA Department of State Development.