The South Australian Government is set to open 21 mineral exploration release areas across 7421 square kilometres for competitive applications.
The round includes a selection of tenements across the Gawler Craton, Nackara Arc, Curnamona Province and Eucla Basin.
It also includes expired, surrendered or cancelled mineral exploration licence areas that have been released to the industry.
The areas are open for bidding between February 3 to 7.
The South Australian Department for Energy and Mining (DEM) will assess applications via a competitive process rather than on a first come, first served basis.
It will evaluate the strength of the proposed exploration program including proposed mineralisation models, exploration targets and financial and technical capabilities.
“To drive private investment in mineral exploration and ensure all parties have a fair opportunity to apply for new areas, the South Australian Government carries out competitive bidding over relinquished tenements,” the government stated.
“A number of tenements offer an extensive catalogue of open file information from public geoscience and previous private exploration efforts, available to view from our award-winning online data platform, the South Australian Resource Information Gateway (SARIG).”