Minerals exploration in Australia is declining. The country was once at the forefront of world exploration expenditure but now languishes in fifth place behind Africa, South America, Canada and "the rest of the world" (a combination of smaller nations). In a bid to arrest this trend, the New South Wales Government made a seven-year 30 million dollars investment in 2000 to promote sustainable minerals and petroleum exploration in the state. So far the initiative has consolidated the state's geosciences database to provide the DIGS (Digital Imaging of Geological Systems) internet service which contains reports dating back as far as 25 years ago. The MinView internet service was also launched, which provides online map viewing of exploration and mining titles, geology and other geodata. On the ground, 70 percent of the state has been covered with airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys including 150,000 square kilometres in the past three years. New airborne geophysical surveys will be flown this year covering 95,000 sq km which will result in complete coverage of NSW. The government has also provided resource mapping and data releases covering the western area of the New England Fold Belt.
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