PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) on Wednesday expressed its disappointment in the New South Wales state budget, saying it ignored many of the concerns raised by the mineral exploration and mining industry.

The state government this week announced that some A$50-million would be invested in the local mining and gas industries, in an effort to ensure that the industries remained world class.

Resources and Energy Minister Anthony Roberts said that some A$30-million of this investment would be geared towards compliance and information to ensure best practice standards in the mining and gas industry.

A further A$15-million would be invested on geoscience activities, including the New Frontiers exploration programme, which would provide a co-contribution of up to A$200 000 to individual exploration projects in New South Wales.

A further A$4-million would fund the rehabilitation of derelict mines, and would help to identify issues in regional areas and to protect communities around the mines.

Despite the state’s investment in the industry, Amec CEO Simon Bennison on Wednesday pointed out that the state government’s revenue forecasts were dependent on household consumption and housing investment, rather than business investment that would grow the state’s revenues.

“The budget also shows that the New South Wales government is still dependent on A$1.6-billion in projected mining royalties to fund the Royalties for Regions programme and much of the additional funding dedicated to the state’s Environmental Protection Agency.

“While the state government has repeatedly said they are open to the industry, and Amec has seen a renewed sense of urgency from Minister Roberts, much more needs to be done to demonstrate this.”

Bennison called on the New South Wales government to remove regulatory costs and threats of greater environmental sanctions, saying it was essential to incentivise greenfield exploration and provide regional infrastructure to unlock the state, to grow the mineral mining and exploration industry to support long-term government revenue streams.