Mineral Exploration Release Areas (ERA)

Published: 01 Jul 2012 Created: 19 Nov 2024 Revised: 28 Mar 2025

Location of all released mineral exploration release areas (ERA) issued under the Mining Act 1971. From July 2012 amendments to the Mining Act (Section 29) have resulted in a change to the way that expired, surrendered or cancelled exploration...

Upon the expiry, surrender, partial surrender or cancellation of an Exploration Licence (EL) and completion of related statutory processes in accordance with the Mining Act 1971, areas may be identified for release to the open market. Areas identified for release will be released as Exploration Release Areas (ERAs) and published on a regular basis via the Government Gazette, in the Public Notices section on the DEM minerals website, and displayed on the South Australia Resources Information Geoserver (SARIG).

No applications for an ERA will be accepted within a moratorium period of approximately 1 month from the date of publishing. ERA applications will only then be accepted during a period of five days (Monday to Friday) at the end of the moratorium period.

Following the closure of the application period:

If no EL applications are received the area will revert to vacant/open ground.
If one EL application is received, it will be processed via established EL application procedures.
If multiple EL applications are received during the 5 day period, then valid applications will proceed to be assessed by an assessment panel.

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Links

Name	Description	Link
Download Google Earth KMZ file	Download Google Earth KMZ file	KMZ
Download Report in PDF format	M53 Mineral exploration release areas (ERAs) – (updated daily)	PDF
More Information	Department for Energy and Mining website	-
Download MapInfo TAB file	Download MapInfo TAB file	TAB
Download ESRI SHP file	Download ESRI SHP file	SHP
Download ESRI Geodatabase file	Download ESRI Geodatabase file	GDB

About this record

Record No	mesac780
Topic	Boundaries
Type of Resource	Dataset
Category Type	Earth Sciences Geochemistry Geology Geophysics Geospatial Information Systems Mineral Exploration Physical Geography Policy And Administration
Document Type
Contributor
Sponsor
Tenement
Tenement Holder
Operator
Geological Province
Other
Mine Name
Stratigraphy
Commodity
Notes
Language	English
Metadata Standard	ISO 19115-3

Citations

Use constraints	License
License	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Persistent identifier	https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/dataset/mesac780
Citation	2012. Mineral Exploration Release Areas (ERA) https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/dataset/mesac780

Technical information

Status	On Going
Maintenance and Update Frequency
Geographic Reference	GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
Geo bounding box	{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[129,-38],[141,-38],[141,-26],[129,-26],[129,-38]]]}
Purpose	The dataset was developed to record information necessary for the administration of the Mining Act. The dataset was developed to record information necessary for the administration of the Mining Act.
Lineage	Source data history: Historical Exploration Licence boundaries as the basis for ERAs were sourced from the official Mining Register licence application documents. Licence boundaries are legally defined to follow lines of latitude and longitude.... Source data history: Historical Exploration Licence boundaries as the basis for ERAs were sourced from the official Mining Register licence application documents. Licence boundaries are legally defined to follow lines of latitude and longitude. The register has existed since 1930. Processing steps: Coordinates are entered from licence documents. Linework is cleaned to remove duplicate arcs. Data adjusted for accurate state border, coastline, areas reserved from the Mining Act and areas of no access for mineral exploration or production. Legal description is defined in AGD66 whilst data is spatially managed in GDA94 to conform to other spatial data. The data are updated in SARIG on a daily basis. Positional accuracy:Most boundary locations are constructed from lines of latitude and longitude, hence are scale independent. The accuracy of other boundaries is dependent upon the source, eg. state border, coastline, cadastre. Attribute accuracy: Associated attribute information is 99% complete and derived from a daily refresh of Tenement Management System (TMS) data extract. Manual validation checks are performed periodically. Logical consistency: The dataset contains no overshoots, undershoots or duplicate lines. All polygons contain only one label. Completeness: Spatial data is 100% complete. Associated attribute data is 100% complete and derived from Tenement Management System (TMS) data extract More +

Attribute details

Name	Definition
Area type	Definition
Mineral Tenements ERA	Type of application - Exploration Release Area (ERA)
ERA Number	Unique Mineral Exploration Release Area number in Minerals and Energy Resources tenement management system
Publish Date	Date the application was published in the Government Gazette
Application Open Date	Date from which ERA applications will be accepted
Application Close Date	Date after which ERA applications will no longer be accepted
Area Status	ERA status (Gazetted for release etc)
Related Tenements	Recent historical Exploration Licences on which ERA boundary is based
Location	General location of the application
Legal area	Total area in square kilometres of ERA as listed in the Mining Register
Criteria	Definition