Positive impacts and future direction of Discovery 2000

The New South Wales Government Discovery 2000 Exploration Initiative (Discovery 2000) will continue to provide the products for companies to further develop their exploration strategies. In its first four years of this six year program it has been very successful and exceeded many of its original goals. Mineral exploration activity has increased by 60% with total annual expenditure now over $100 million. One of the successes of the Discovery 2000 program has been to encourage both mineral and petroleum explorers into “new” areas, not previously considered to be prospective. Within the Discovery 2000 mineral project areas there are 160 new Exploration Licences (EL’s). This covers about 21% of all ground under EL’s in the State. Sixty-seven companies, ranging from majors to juniors, have taken out exploration titles. Petroleum exploration has more than doubled and is at the highest level of activity for over 30 years. This is particularly evident in the Darling Basin where there is significant potential for large gas bearing structures.

The Discovery 2000 information systems projects are close to completion. The world-class Digital Imaging Geological survey System (DIGS^®) is now operational and provides rapid retrieval of company exploration data. Over half a million documents (text and maps, both black and white and colour) have been scanned and indexed. Geoscience Data Packages on CD-ROM have been released over all of the Discovery 2000 mineral areas. These packages contain all available geophysical imagery, geological and geochemical data. A feature of these packages is a first-pass interpretation of the geophysical data.

A sum of $10 million is to be spent over the next 2 years. New areas being considered for airborne geophysical and gravity surveys including the Cobar/Nymagee area, the Gilmore Structure and along the Peel Thrust. With the help of the Discovery 2000 initiative, New South Wales is increasingly being recognised as an attractive target for mineral and petroleum resources development.