Tenement uptake Stimulating company activity

Table 1 (below) shows the active exploration tenements by number and square kilometres that are associated with Geoscience Australia precompetitive geoscience products produced as part of the Exploring for the Future program.

Table 1: Number of tenements attributed to the Exploring for the Future program (since 2017) by square kilometres (current as of June 2024)

National overview

• Precompetitive geoscience data and analysis play an important role in supporting resource exploration. Companies take up exploration tenement based on the presence of precompetitive data that either indicates the ground has potential to host mineral or energy resources and/or the data reduces uncertainty and financial risk in exploration.
• Geoscience Australia is the largest producer of precompetitive geoscience data and analysis for Australia, driven in large part through activities of the Exploring for the Future program.
• Geoscience Australia tracks the use of precompetitive data and information by industry.
• Industry surveys suggest that precompetitive geoscience data and analysis is used by over 80% of companies operating in the non-ferrous metals extraction industry and oil and gas extraction industry.
• A 2023 Deloitte Access Economics report concluded that precompetitive geoscience data and analysis supported 3.5% of Australia's GDP or around $76 billion of added value to the Australian economy and around 80,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in 2021-22 alone. This includes $5.5 billion in value added to resource exploration and around $70.5 billion value added to mining at a cost of $71 million. It means that every $1 invested in Geoscience Australia's precompetitive data and analysis production supported $1,000 of value add and 432 FTE jobs.