EXPLORATION INCENTIVE
SCHEME
869. Hon JACQUI BOYDELL to the minister representing the
Minister for Mines and Petroleum:
I refer to the co-funded drilling
component of the exploration incentive scheme.
(1) For funding
rounds from 2018 onwards, can the minister please list the split of funding
available based on the scale and size of drilling operations?
(2) Within those
category splits, how much funding was expended in each across the same funding
rounds?
(3) Should funds
in any category of co-funded drilling go unexpended, where in the Department of
Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety budget are they allocated?
(4) On what date
did the EIS commence being funded through mining tenement rent collected by
DMIRS?
(5) Since that
date, what is the total amount of mining tenement rent that DMIRS has collected
from industry in WA?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
The following information has been provided by the Minister for Mines and Petroleum.
(1) Of the $10 million annual budget, $5 million is
allocated to the co-funded drilling program. The scale and size of the
drilling operations is determined solely by the exploration companies. However,
co-funding is capped for a multi-hole
drilling project at $150 000 and for a single deep hole at $200 000, for 50 per
cent of direct drilling costs. Prospector applications are capped at $30
000.
(2) The
aforementioned category splits have not changed since the inception of the EIS
co-funding.
(3) If there is any underspend in co-funding, it is
reallocated to other projects in the EIS, such as pre-competitive data acquisition.
(4) Mining
tenement rents contribute to the funding of a range of services across
government, including the EIS. However, when the former government was in
office, it chose to fund the EIS through the royalties for regions program.
(5) The total was $247.9 million as
at 7 September 2020.