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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-09 Daily Xml
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DEEP EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (15:16): My question is to the Leader of the Government and Minister for Mineral Resources Development. Will the minister provide an update to the council on South Australian efforts to improve the ability of mining companies to explore deep below the surface of the Earth?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:16): I thank the honourable member for his very important question. It was with great enthusiasm that I accepted an invitation last week to attend the opening of the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre at the University of Adelaide's Mawson Laboratories. Aside from the opportunity to look at the samples collected by Sir Douglas Mawson, Reg Sprigg and others, which are now stored at the laboratory, it was also a significant day for those who worked so hard to have the Deep Exploration Technologies CRC headquartered here in Adelaide. It is a very significant and important step for our city.

Dr Tom Whiting, the chair of this new cooperative research centre, was instrumental in putting together the successful bid with the support of AMIRA, our local industry and research groups, as well as the university. The South Australian government has been proactive in establishing Adelaide as the preferred headquarters through a $1 million contribution to the research centre. It is also important that I acknowledge the funding provided by the commonwealth government and, in particular, the support given to this cooperative research centre, by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr.

This CRC will deliver research programs in more successful, cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly ways to drill, analyse and target deep mineral deposits. With $112 million of cash and in-kind funding from the Australian government and the participants—and there are some major mining companies such as BHP Billiton and Barrick Gold, which I will mention in a moment, involved in this—the DET CRC is the world's best supported independent research initiative in mineral exploration. That is why it is very significant that it is located here in Adelaide.

The DET CRC will manage an eight-year program funded by $28 million from the commonwealth government's CRC program, $21 million cash and $12 million in kind from industry participants, and $50 million in kind from its research providers. The inaugural participants in the Deep Exploration Technologies CRC are Barrick Gold, BHP Billiton, Boart Longyear—which, of course, manufactures drills and has a plant at Mitchell Park—the CSIRO, the Curtin University of Technology, Geoscience Australia, Gold Fields, Newcrest, PIRSA, the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australia and Vale Exploration.

The DET CRC has been established to address the most significant challenge to the future of the minerals industry, and that is the reduction in the mineral resources inventory due to high production rates and low mineral exploration success. In the Australian context, mineral resources constitute about 50 per cent of the nation's exports, and yet 80 per cent of Australia's mineral production is from mines discovered more than 30 years ago.

The CEO of the DET CRC is Professor Richard Hillis, formerly Mawson Professor of Geology and head of the Australian School of Petroleum at the University of Adelaide. The Deep Exploration Technology CRC's headquarters are currently at the University of Adelaide but, from next year, will be embedded with industry at Boart Longyear's new regional headquarters currently being constructed at Adelaide Airport. The other key research nodes for the DET CRC will be at CSIRO's Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies in Brisbane and the Australian Resources Research Centre in Perth which houses Curtin University and CSIRO researchers.

The Deep Exploration Technology CRC brings together a unique mix of mining companies, researchers, service companies and geological surveys under the cooperative research centre scheme to achieve its ambitious goals. At the launch, Boart Longyear announced that it will make available to the CRC its latest, yet-to-be-released diamond drill rig that is the safest and most technically advanced drill available. The 4200 prototype of the soon-to-be-released production SC9 drill is capable of real-time data collection and processing, is accessible online and is very adaptable to test, validate and integrate the technologies that the DET CRC will develop.

It was pointed out during a demonstration of this real-time data that, when Olympic Dam mine was discovered in the 1970s, it took something like three or four months for that data to be processed, analysed in a laboratory and brought back. We are now talking about drilling technology that will give information in real time, so that you can see what a significant benefit that would be.

This drill will permit researchers to see the drill in action from anywhere in the world and test their results in real time. It is expected that this drill will significantly bring forward the development and application of new technologies developed by the Deep Exploration Technology CRC. The drill will be located at the DET CRC's drilling research and training facility—

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