PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Minerals exploration spend in Victoria has reached its highest level since records began, the state government revealed this week.

Minister for Resources Jaclyn Symes quoted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which showed that exploration spend had grown nearly seven times since 2014, to reach A$34.7-million.

Symes said that this confidence was reflected in the number of exploration licences being issued, with 30 applications submitted in February – the highest monthly number in five years.

This number is expected to grow with the North Central Victorian Goldfields Ground Release tender process.

“We’re seeing Victoria’s next gold rush, with more gold being found every year and growing interest in exploration, now is the time for companies to invest in Victorian minerals exploration.”

The gold industry has been further buoyed by a rising gold price, which broke the A$2 500/oz mark for the first time ever last week and is currently hovering at around A$2 400/oz, the Minister pointed out.

The Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV) estimates there may be more than 73-million ounces of undiscovered gold across the state, exceeding the total amount of gold unearthed over the past 170 years.

“Our minerals sector is extremely important for regional jobs – it’s really exciting to see this kind of confidence in a sector that’s going from strength-to-strength,” Symes said.

Overall the ABS data shows Victorian mining employment rose 41% last financial year, supporting an average of 16 000 jobs across the state, benefitting many regional Victoria communities.

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), however, has warned the Victorian government that it could not take mining's contribution to jobs, investment and communities in regional Victoria in the future for granted.

MCA executive director for Victoria James Sorahan pointed out that the Fraser Institute’s latest Annual Survey of Mining Companies was another reminder that Victoria needed to double down on improving its regulatory regime if the state is serious about growing the mining industry and regional development.

Victoria’s 2019 scorecard showed a deterioration in investors' policy perceptions of mining in the state. Victoria remains the second worst state in the rankings, ahead only of New South Wales and far behind best performing Western Australia.

“While Victoria’s score on investment attractiveness which includes ‘policy perceptions’ and ‘mineral potential’ increased from a score of 60.74 to 64.27 (out of 100), Victoria’s score on policy perceptions fell sharply from 76.85 to 67.81. 

“This is in part a predictable consequence of the government’s flawed and rushed imposition of a massive new gold royalty on the industry which took effect from January 1 this year,” said Sorahan.

“A positive is that Victoria’s score on mineral potential is up and is the highest it has been in the last five years. This improvement is primarily due to Victoria’s improving minerals prospectivity, but Victoria’s geological potential alone is not enough for the state to convert its minerals endowment into a pipeline of new investment and jobs.”

Half of all respondents said that approval timeframes in Victoria have ‘lengthened considerably’ in the last ten years and 43% said that Victoria ‘rarely met’ its own established timeframes for approvals.

Victoria also ranks in the bottom half of jurisdictions on taxation, uncertainty of regulations and regulatory duplication.

“The need to act is becoming urgent if growing interest in exploration is to convert into new mines in coming years,” Sorahan said.