Government geoscience accelerating resource discovery and development

Collaborative government geoscience programs deliver data and information on Australia’s natural resources. Precompetitive geoscience is publicly available data and information that is shared freely by government for the benefit of all stakeholders. For the resources industry, precompetitive geoscience helps reduce investment risk and increases the odds of making a successful discovery during exploration. It comes before private sector exploration and investment, not instead of it. Governments deliver precompetitive geoscience through integrated and complementary regional- to national-scale data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation studies of mineral and energy resource potential. Geoscience Australia works to support many stakeholders from the Australian Government, State and Territory Geological Surveys, industry, academia and communities. This ensures that reliable information is available to make informed decisions, and to establish and maintain a pipeline of exploration and development projects that can provide the raw materials needed for the production of renewable energy technologies (such as solar panels, wind turbines), electric vehicles, advanced manufacturing and defence technologies and capabilities. Geoscience Australia’s current program has several initiatives specifically supporting the minerals sector. Resourcing Australia's Prosperity aims to comprehensively map Australia’s natural resources and accelerate the discovery of critical minerals and is a major federal government initiative. The Critical Minerals Research and Development Hub, which concludes in June 2026, is focused on industry prioritised research in collaboration with CSIRO and ANSTO. The Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative leverages international expertise to improve mineral prospectivity techniques and will feed into the Resourcing Australia's Prosperity initiative. The outcome of this work provides trusted scientific evidence and advice that directly supports the Australian Government’s policies and strategic priorities as well as mapping the nations mineral potential and other resources needed to support the energy transition​. A thriving and sustainable resources exploration industry accelerates investment, resource development and a stronger economy. Presented at the 2025 Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) Conference