SA now third in exploration effort [04apr06]

SOUTH Australia is experiencing a minerals and exploration boom. The last year, in particular, has seen extraordinary growth and there's no sign this will end any time soon.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the value of mineral exploration in SA reached almost $100 million last year - a 79 per cent rise on the previous year.

In the December quarter of 2005 alone, spending on exploration in SA was 130 per cent higher than in the same quarter of 2004.

SA has moved to third in Australia in terms of exploration expenditure, ahead of NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory.

These remarkable results have been helped in no small way by the Government's introduction in 2004 of the Plan for Accelerating Exploration - or PACE - initiative.

With such results, we can justifiably claim to be the pro-mining state. The Rann Government is committed to ensuring this strong growth continues - and there's no doubt uranium represents an important element to the future success of the state's minerals industry.

With almost 40 per cent of the world's economic uranium deposits here in this state, the future of the uranium industry is important for all South Australians.

Consequently, the Government believes it's time to change the Australian Labor Party's "no-new-mines" policy, which the Premier recently described as "anachronistic".

The policy has actually helped SA, allowing the Olympic Dam and Beverley mines to develop while other uranium mine proposals in other states had been blocked.

However, the policy is now outdated. It's time for a change, to allow SA's competitive advantage in uranium to come to the fore.

A policy change would have no immediate impact on SA as there are currently no new uranium mining projects seeking approval in SA.

But this may change in the next few years as highly prospective deposits are further explored.

The ultimate forum for changing the policy will be the next ALP federal policy convention, due to be held early month next year.

There will be much policy discussions during the next 12 months in the lead-up to the convention, and the State Government intends to be actively involved in the discussions relating to uranium policy.

* Paul Holloway is Mineral Resources Development Minister