Other companies to announce new grants in the past 24 hours include Monax Mining and Kingston Resources.

MinQuest said the new money would partly fund drill testing of its Cyclops prospect, which forms part of the wider Coober Pedy project in central SA.

Cyclops contains an iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) target, and a four to six-week drilling program is set to start in the first week of May.

In other parts of the state, Monax secured $70,000 for its Kimberlite project, where it is focused on the Margaret Dam target.

Drilling is planned for either June or July.

Monax also secured funds for the Punt Hill IOCG project, and farm-in partner Western Areas received funding for the Western Gawler Craton project.

Elsewhere, Kingston Resources announced late yesterday it had scored $70,000 for the Cootanoorina project.

The latest grants form part of SA’s Plan for Accelerating Exploration initiative.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis announced the new round of funding earlier this week, with a total 27 projects set to share $2 million in cash.

MinQuest shares were last trading 11% higher at 2c while Monax and Kingston were both steady at 1.3c and 1.5c respectively.