The Western Australian Government has announced the successful applicants for round 28 of the Exploration Incentive Scheme’s (EIS) co-funded drilling program and series 6 of the energy analysis program (EAP).
Round 28 of the EIS – which was announced back in August – will offer grants worth more than $6 million to 33 general applicants and three prospectors for projects to be drilled between December 2023 and November 2024.
More than half of the program’s successful applicants are searching for battery minerals. Five projects will explore lithium, six will look for rare earth elements and 13 will search for nickel.
Series 6 of the EAP will offer $120,000 to three successful applicants that are analysing and reprocessing projects in the Canning Basin in central northern WA, and the Officer Basin in central southern WA.
The WA Government’s overall funding towards both programs is $6.1 million.
“The ongoing interest in the Exploration Incentive Scheme reflects the strength of WA’s exploration sector and industry’s confidence in our state’s economic future,” Minister for Mines and Petroleum Bill Johnston said.
The EIS is expected to expand in 2024 to include a co-funded geophysics program that will offer $2 million per year to co-fund greenfields exploration geophysics data acquisition.
The EIS will open to new applications in February 2024, along with round 29 of the co-funded drilling program and series 7 of the EAP.
The EIS is an initiative that was created by the WA Government in April 2009 that aims to encourage exploration in the state for the long-term sustainability of its resources sector. Its co-funded drilling round was created following the WA 2023-24 State Budget allocating a funding increase of $1 million per year.
The EAP is a program under the EIS initiative designed for petroleum and geothermal companies. The program aims to make funding accessible for analysing existing state resources to better understand petroleum and geothermal systems.
