Gawler Craton

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy. Can the minister inform the house of any significant outcomes from the completion of the Gawler Craton gravity survey under the government's PACE initiative?

The SPEAKER: I am pleased the Treasurer is able to answer this while he is here.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:59): Thank you, sir, for no predetermined outcome to the remaining 21 minutes. I want to thank the member for his question and, indeed, the continued interest of all members of the parliament and the house in the expansion of our state's mineral resources industry.

The Gawler Craton is a hugely prospective area. This geological province is at the heart of our state's economic prosperity, already the home to Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill, two world-class copper-gold projects generating jobs and prosperity, not just for the state, but the nation. These two major mines are just the beginning. To unlock the full potential of this geological—

Mr KNOLL: Point of order: the Gawler Craton gravity survey to which the question refers is available on the DMITRE website as we speak.

The SPEAKER: The minister is referring to significant outcomes, but if the member for Schubert cares to bring it to me I will rule on it.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: To unlock the full potential of this geological province, the state government recently undertook several important initiatives. The first initiative was to convince the federal government, and through it the Department of Defence, to provide greater access for explorers to the Woomera Prohibited Area that sits within the Gawler Craton.

A new access regime will ensure explorers are well aware of the rules, both when taking up tenements within the WPA and when designing their exploration programs. A further initiative was to fund a geological survey of the Gawler Craton through our world renowned PACE program so that geologists have access to the most up-to-date precompetitive data.

I would like to acknowledge the role of the Premier in supporting the Gawler Craton survey. The Premier, as treasurer, understood perfectly that unlocking the potential of our state's mineral resources requires investment and knowledge today. PACE has already shown its value through the discoveries of Four Mile and Carrapateena, both supported by the government's drilling partnership program, but we should not overlook the value of the precompetitive data provided through PACE. It is by better understanding the geology of our state that we will be able to pinpoint the next Olympic Dam and the next Carrapateena.

The $2 million in funding allowed us to commission more than 34,000 gravity measurements across the length and breadth of the Gawler Craton, including the Woomera Prohibited Area. The result is high resolution data covering a mass of 42,500 square kilometres. That is an area the size of Switzerland, an area that is estimated to hold $35 billion of potential development.

This foresighted investment is already beginning to deliver returns for South Australia. Last week ASX-listed Maximus Resources announced that it has secured more than $3 million to spend on exploring and evaluating its Millers Creek project within the Gawler Craton. In announcing it has secured the funding for its exploration funding through a farm-in agreement with Monax Alliance, Maximus acknowledged the role of the PACE gravity survey data in identifying six target zones within its tenements. Maximus also pointed out that the access regime of the WPA was a factor in the design and timing of its initial exploration program.

The copper-gold targets for the Millers Creek project are located between Prominent Hill and Olympic Dam, about 600 kilometres north-west of Adelaide. A significant factor in this announcement is the involvement of Monax Alliance in the exploration program. Monax has secured major Chilean copper producer Antofagasta as a strategic partner in the Millers Creek project.

Having major international miners, such as Antofagasta, take up strategic partnerships in exploration in South Australia sends a powerful signal to other would-be investors in South Australia. We, as a government, welcome the $3 million in exploration spending secured out of our $2 million investment in the PACE 2020 Gawler Craton survey, and I suspect this will be the first of many. Every mine begins with the first exploration hole drilled. The more we can encourage exploration and remove barriers to search for our mineral resources, the closer we get to progress to our next discovery.