The Northern Territory Government this week has awarded a record $4 million in co-funding for round 17 of the Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations (GDC) program. The program, part of the $9.5 million Resourcing the Territory program, aims to contribute to exploration success by funding projects that address knowledge gaps, advance exploration activity, and support the discovery and development of resources in the Territory. The results of these projects stimulate economic success by supporting industry innovation and providing new data to industry and the public.
This year the program will support 41 projects from 29 companies to complete data collection and analysis in the 2024/25 financial year. Projects range from early-stage exploration to near-development and represent a diverse range of commodities. Over half of the projects are targeting commodities on the NT's current and emerging Critical Minerals list, including cobalt, copper, lithium, molybdenum, nickel, rare earth elements, tungsten, zinc, niobium, tantalum, and tin. Demand for these commodities is expected to keep growing over time to support renewable energy, battery storage, and high-technology industries. Other projects are targeting some of the Territory's known major mineral commodities such as gold and uranium, or energy commodities hydrogen and helium.
Grants are awarded on a competitive basis to projects of high technical merit across five categories. 61 applications were received in round 17, with 41 projects funded including 12 greenfields drilling projects, 8 brownfields diamond drilling projects, 10 regional-scale geophysical projects, 8 innovative targeting projects, and 3 advancing critical minerals projects (new category for round 17). Projects will deliver data and drill core across ten different geological provinces in the NT to encourage further exploration in underexplored areas or to drive development in areas of known resource endowment. All data and drill core acquired by the projects will become publicly available on 1 August 2025, or 6 months after acquisition (whichever is earlier).
Last year's round 16 saw a number of technical successes from 26 completed programs:
- Kingsland Minerals Ltd announced a maiden JORC resource for Australia's largest graphite deposit following co-funded diamond drilling at the Leliyn deposit.
- Ragusa Minerals Ltd intersected low grade spodumene-bearing pegmatites during co-funded RC drilling in the Daly region.
- Knox Resources Pty Ltd successfully targeted high-density rocks at their Leichardt East project using an innovative approach of combining co-funded Ambient-Noise Tomography data with previously co-funded datasets and drilling.
- GSW Resources Pty Ltd identified a significant deposit of high-grade rare earth elements at Callista following a co-funded maiden aircore drilling program.
- Prodigy Gold NL defined an extension to the Tregony gold deposit at depth, with significant gold intersections in co-funded drilling.
- Encounter Resources Ltd intersected copper mineralisation on the basin-basement contact during co-funded drilling at their Sandover project, opening up the area for a new deposit style. This project will be open file soon.
View more round 16 open file projects through GEMIS.
View the GDC Round 17 successful projects and map.
For more information, visit Exploration grants | Resourcing the Territory