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- 7 June 2007
Mineral and Petroleum Exploration
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Page: 977
The Hon. TONY CATANZARITI: My question is directed to the Minister for Mineral Resources. Can the Minister update the House on initiatives to attract investments and exploration designed to locate new mineral and petroleum deposits in New South Wales?
The Hon. Michael Costa: Good, more coal!
The Hon. IAN MACDONALD: I thank the honourable member for his question and the Treasurer for his overwhelming enthusiasm on these matters. As honourable members would be aware, the Government has made considerable investment over the years in technologies and surveys that help us to learn more about the State's mineral and petroleum deposits. New South Wales has great untapped resources of coal and petroleum and the Labor Government strongly supports exploration, and has done so for more than a decade, with initiatives such as Discovery 2000, Exploration New South Wales and now New Frontiers. That is more than $70 million in initiative funding over the past 12 years. That has generated increased exploration interest in New South Wales, setting the scene for an exploration and development boom in this State.
In order to maintain jobs and wealth in the State's mineral sector, we must nurture research, exploration and development. That is why a $1.48 million seismic survey for petroleum begins this week and will continue for three weeks on the State's north-west slopes and in the Hunter region. It is part of the $8 million government-funded New Frontiers initiative. It will be carried out around Narrabri, Gunnedah, Tamworth, Liverpool Plains, Upper Hunter, Muswellbrook and Singleton, using state-of-the-art vibroseis technology.
I will explain that for honourable members opposite, who are known for their Luddite ways. This technique creates low impact seismic waves which travel down through the earth and which are detected by sensitive monitoring equipment spread out along the surface. This data allows geoscientists to "see" the geological features deep below the surface and to determine whether the region has oil and gas potential. This is cutting-edge technology.
Other projects already undertaken this year include: the $400,000 Thomson Orogen gravity survey covering 42,000 square kilometres in the Tilpa region in far north-west New South Wales; a $140,000-drilling program in the regions looking at the actual architecture of the rocks; and a teleseismic survey covering parts of the gold-rich Bendigo-Stawell zone in the far south-west of New South Wales. Private exploration investment in the Thomas Orogen and Stawell zones has also increased dramatically following the release of new geological data.
Honourable members should make no mistake, New South Wales produces a diverse range of minerals, including coal, gas, metallic minerals, industrial minerals and construction materials. The value of New South Wales mineral production represents about 15 per cent of the total value of Australian mineral production. Mineral and metal exports account for one-third of total New South Wales merchandise exports.
Private mineral exploration expenditure in New South Wales in 2005-06 was $114 million, which is more than 9 per cent of total Australian exploration expenditure, and that figure is growing. Incidentally, that is a record figure. Mining is important to regional development with more than 18,000 people directly employed and many times more indirectly employed. New South Wales is an attractive State for both investment and exploration with excellent infrastructure, for example, rail, ports, power, roads, communications, skilled workforce, four world-class mineral provinces, large areas underexplored, land access, Government support for exploration and world-best geoscience. Last, but not least, Sydney is also a major financial hub.
These factors drive exploration, and without exploration there would be no new discoveries, and without new discoveries there would be no mines. The Government is pursuing this program emphasising the need to expand our mining base. More than 40 coal and mineral mine proposals and extensions to existing mines are also in the development pipeline. If all of these projects were to proceed, they would involve cumulative expenditure of more than $6 billion and generate more than 5,000 new jobs. [ Time expired.]
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