Rio Tinto’s McIntosh: collaborate for next big mineral discovery

Rio Tinto has called for industry collaboration to break Australia’s drought in world-class mineral discoveries.

Rio Tinto’s Stephen McIntosh wants easier land access for exploration. Picture: Aaron Francis

Rio Tinto (RIO) has called for greater industry collaboration and an overhaul of state land access regimes to break Australia’s multi-­decade drought in world-class mineral discoveries.

In a speech to the Diggers & Dealers conference today, Rio’s group executive of growth & innovation Stephen McIntosh will tell the 1800 delegates that Australia is overdue for a so­-called tier-1 discovery.

He will say it has been two decades or more since the last tier-1 discoveries, ­Rio’s Century zinc find in Queensland, which produced its last ore under different ownership earlier this year, and Newcrest’s Cadia gold/copper riches in NSW.

Mr McIntosh will say that one of the key impediments facing the industry in the hunt for the next big discovery was the challenge of achieving timely access to exploration ground.

“The Productivity Commission’s 2013 inquiry provided a sobering assessment of the various state approaches and requirements and the lengthy time taken from the lodgement and granting of an application to get on the ground.

“In many cases, the first year can be exhausted by regulatory approvals, truncating the time left for actual exploration activity,” Mr McIntosh will tell delegates.

He will emphasise, however, that he is not advocating explorers be given carte blanche to land ­access. But the industry does need to work closely with regulators to find better ways to streamline the process and remove widespread inefficiencies.

Mr McIntosh will note that while the big companies can weather delays, junior companies cannot afford delays on getting on to the ground to start exploration.

He will also renew Rio’s call at last year’s conference for junior companies with promising exploration properties to approach the company for joint ventures.

Rio has a $US150 million ($197m) annual greenfields exploration budget targeting eight ­different commodities across 17 countries, including Australia.

“We are open for business and are looking for the next tier-1 ­discovery,” Mr McIntosh will say.

“We need to continue to invest and renew our pipeline (of exploration properties) to increase our chances.”

Rio has a preference for its next big discovery to be in copper.

“Regardless of the price cycles, we want to ensure we have a pipeline of high quality options to both sustain and grow our business and one of the best ways to do that is through a fresh discovery.”

Mr McIntosh will suggest that the odds of success could be ­improved if the industry took a more collaborative approach ­rather than guarding its exploration ­intellectual property.

“We should look to move from opportunism to opportunity and use partnerships and technology to turbo­charge discovery selection and activity to get better bang for our industry buck.”