Mineral Exploration Reporting (SA)

Mineral explorers are required to report six-monthly and annually on their exploration projects under South Australian legislation.

Refer to the Department of State Development's Mineral exploration reporting guidelines for South Australia

Tenements for which exploration reports are required

• Exploration Licences (EL)

Types of mineral exploration reports required:

• Six-monthly Summary Report
• A separate report must be lodged for each EL, and if no exploration was undertaken during the period a ‘Nil report’ must be submitted.
• Forward six-monthly Summary reports to the EL Reporting Officer, Mineral Resources Division, DSD.Exploration@sa.gov.au.
• Joint reporting arrangements do not apply to six-monthly reports.

• Annual Technical Report
• A digital copy of Technical reports must be submitted annually, or on the expiry, partial surrender or full surrender of a licence. Hard copies are no longer accepted.

Combined technical reporting

Where an exploration project is being conducted across adjoining licences, the licensee can apply to the Director of Mines (Attention: EL Reporting Officer) for joint reporting status for those licences. Such arrangements are encouraged by the Department of State Development as they reduce the number of reports to be completed by companies and reduce handling by the department.

Requests for joint annual reporting status should be submitted in writing to the Director of Mines (Attention: EL Reporting Officer), and provide the following information:

• list of tenements to be jointly reported displaying details of ownership of each tenement
• map showing the extent of the project area, boundaries of the licences covered, and relevant geoscientific and geographical information/justification to assist in assessment of the proposal
• proposed date for submission of reports (this should coincide with the anniversary of one of the licences within the reporting group)
• any Technical reports due or overdue on licences within the nominated group.

In considering requests for joint annual reporting, the department will take into account the exploration target or objective, the geographical distribution of the licences (i.e. contiguous licences), licence ownership, the history of reporting on the licences and the previous exploration and reporting performance of the explorer. Where one licence or part of a licence from the group is surrendered or expires, partial surrender reporting requirements will apply (Sections 4.2 and 5).

Six-monthly Summary reports are not included in joint reporting arrangements and should be submitted as per normal requirements. Expenditure commitments for each licence must still be met unless a special arrangement has been reached with the Department of State Development.

Submission dates

• Six-monthly summary report
• One copy must be submitted, together with a detailed expenditure statement, for each six-monthly period from the granting of a licence, within 30 days of the end of the period.
• Annual technical report
• The Annual technical report, including all results, studies and new technical data acquired annually, must be submitted within 60 days of each anniversary of the granting of a licence.