Photo: Josh Kelly
Queensland exploration - past, present, future Kim Wainwright, Chair, Queensland Exploration Council
2
020 marks the tenyear anniversary of the Queensland Exploration Council’s Exploration Scorecard. The Scorecard was launched in 2010-11 to ‘track Queensland’s progress towards becoming an exploration leader by 2020’. This is an opportunity to reflect on how industry sentiment has changed over the last decade, acknowledge the challenges of today and look forward to the next decade with optimism. The scorecard analyses the critical drivers of exploration activity: • Queensland’s resource prospectivity and endowment • The price and outlook for key commodities
28
BBMC Yearbook 2020
• Explorer and investor confidence • Policy and regulatory stability As the market drives commodity prices, the scorecard concentrates on those lead indicators which can be influenced, notably explorer and investor confidence and access to the essential factors of development and production. Past Over the last ten years, Queensland’s exploration industry has shown itself to be resilient to global challenges. The inaugural scorecard tracked the industry’s recovery from the Global Financial Crisis. Ten years later, this scorecard is set against the backdrop of the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. Queensland’s exploration industry has remained resilient throughout economic downturns and market uncertainty, a testament to its reputation as a worldclass resources jurisdiction. Sentiment about Queensland’s resource prospectivity and endowment has remained consistently positive since the inception of the scorecard. Being host to highly prospective mineral, coal and gas resources continues to drive exploration in Queensland.
