<p>Exploring for the Future (EFTF, <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf">http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf</a>) is a four-year (2016–2020) $100.5 million program investigating the mineral, energy and groundwater resource potential in northern Australia and parts of South Australia. The program is delivering new geoscience data, knowledge and decision support tools that support increased industry investment and sustainable economic development. <p>Geoscience Australia commissioned ACIL Allen Consulting to independently quantify the return on investment from selected EFTF projects that are representative of the nature of the work done under the program. The objective was to develop a plausible and economically robust estimate of the returns to government through increased government revenue as a result of the case study projects. Geoscience Australia would like to acknowledge the organisations that have contributed to or supported these EFTF case study projects. <p>The results of this independent analysis can be used to estimate the impact and value of the EFTF program as a whole relative to the funds invested in these activities. The evaluation framework used by ACIL Allen Consulting to assess the impact and value of Geoscience Australia’s pre-competitive geoscience under EFTF is one that has been used for similar assessments of similar organisations in the past. <p>The analysis shows that the benefits that could potentially flow to the Commonwealth as a result of the EFTF projects examined at least match what has been spent on the program, and the returns can be as much as an order of magnitude higher than the cost of the entire program.

Geoscience Australia commissioned ACIL Allen Consulting (ACIL Allen) to independently quantify the return on investment from six pre-competitive geoscience projects. These projects include three from the first phase of the $225 million Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program (2016-2024) and three pre-EFTF projects that were undertaken within the last two decades: the Mineral Potential Mapper Project (2012-2016), the Salt Lakes Study (2012-2014), and the Northeast Yilgarn Project (2001-2004). ACIL Allen has shown that the net benefits that have been estimated to flow as a result of Geoscience Australia’s spending on each of the projects are all positive, and in many cases, quite large. The return on investment analysis for the three EFTF case studies is published separately (https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/132897) and the analysis of the three pre-EFTF case studies is available here in three standalone reports. An additional overview report synthesises the findings from all six case studies to assess the broader impact and value of pre-competitive geoscience projects. This synthesis includes projects undertaken by Geoscience Australia alone or in collaboration with state/territory geological surveys and other research organisations. ACIL Allen estimated that the net present value of benefits to Australia attributed to Geoscience Australia’s contribution to the three pre-EFTF projects are between $962 million and $2.4 billion, depending on the scenario considered. ACIL Allen also estimated that for every dollar invested by Geoscience Australia in these pre-EFTF projects, the Australian Government could gain a net benefit of at least $15 and potentially as much as $157. The analysis also shows that direct jobs associated with mining operations potentially arising from GA’s work on the six projects could number in the thousands. The ACIL Allen analysis also demonstrates that considerable time may elapse between the completion of a Geoscience Australia project and commencement of the mining of any resources that are identified. The three pre-EFTF projects examined suggest that it is around 10 years between the publication of Geoscience Australia’s results and the development of a mine. Therefore, If the development of any resources based on the findings of the EFTF projects follow similar timelines, then we could potentially expect to see new mines in operation sometime between 2026 and 2030.