Sandfire will receive about $47,000 for work at its Wingrunner copper-gold project northwest of Peak Hill, where the company is targeting a large circular gravity low with associated elevated magnetics typical of the Northparkes intrusive complex.

Anchor and Impact will each receive more than $100,000 for exploration at their Birdwood North and Red Hill projects, respectively.

Birdwood has been identified to host an extensive soil copper geochemical anomaly while Red Hill has returned underground face samples of up to 4% copper and 3% nickel.

Peel Mining was awarded funds for three separate tenements, including the Orana, Mundoe and Sandy Creek polymetallic projects.

The most substantial funding went to GFM Exploration and White Rock Minerals, with both companies receiving $200,000.

White Rock’s grant under the program will support work at its Mt Carrington project where the company recently delivered scoping results contemplating a 30,000 ounce per annum gold operation with a capital cost of $20.6 million.

New Frontiers aims to attract investment in NSW by providing grants to exploration companies for drill programs in underexplored areas.

It represents a $2 million co-funded initiative with the government providing up to 50% of direct drilling costs for individual projects capped at $200,000.

“This program demonstrates the NSW government’s commitment to encourage mineral exploration across the state with 20 projects to receive grants under the co-operative drilling program once completed in 12 months,” NSW mines department official Brad Mullard said.

“The government conducts some of its own drilling in frontier areas to improve our knowledge of the underlying geology but by co-operating with industry on further drilling activities, we can cover more areas more quickly and make more informed decisions about if, where and how we might use these deposits to benefit NSW.

“Finding more minerals is critical to the long term energy and economic future of NSW.”

Mining employs about 33,000 people directly and about 132,000 people indirectly in the state, with the primary metal commodities including gold, copper, lead, zinc, silver, tin, tungsten and platinum.

Successful drilling programs must be completed and the results, drill samples and reports sent back to the NSW Division of Resources.

Grants will also be given for drilling programs which test new geological concepts.

Payment of the funds will occur once the work is complete.