Exploration License Moratorium Areas for Mineral Resources

Australian geospatial data delineating areas where new mineral exploration license applications are temporarily prohibited, typically for a three-month period following the relinquishment of a previous license. The dataset is maintained by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and was last updated in April 2026. It provides the boundaries for these regulatory moratorium zones.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial distribution of moratorium areas to identify regions with recent license relinquishment activity.
• Calculate the duration of application blackout periods based on the moratorium start date referenced in the data.
• Map moratorium boundaries against geological survey data to assess potential future exploration opportunities post-moratorium.
• Monitor temporal changes in moratorium area polygons to track regulatory impacts on land access for exploration.

Strengths

• Data is provided in 9 different geospatial file formats (TAB, SHP, WFS, etc.) for tool interoperability.
• Maintained by a government department (Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action) responsible for regulation.
• Last updated in April 2026, indicating recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Specific row count, total area coverage, and sample data are unavailable for assessing dataset scale.
• The description lacks details on column structure, data attributes, and specific geometry types.
• Geographic scope is implied to be Australia but is not explicitly stated in the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (Victoria, Australia).

Collection Method

Derived from administrative records of exploration license relinquishments under the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act (MRSDA).

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-04-08.

Geography

Implied to be Victoria, Australia, based on the publishing organization.