Tasmanian resources minister Felix Ellis said mineral exploration in Tasmania was at its highest level on record.

"It is pleasing to see that this week's ABS figures also show that Tasmania's exploration spend ranks third in Australia when calculated on the basis of spend per square kilometre," he said.

"As our number one economic earner, the mining and mineral processing sector contributes more than $2.9 billion a year in exports and supports more than 5800 jobs.

Ellis said there had been an increase in exploration expenditure of 93% on the preceding 12-month period.

"We know the world will need the key and critical minerals that Tasmania has to help power the global shift to renewable energy and to support defence manufacturing," he said.

"This is exactly why we are backing the industry to grow through programs like our popular Exploration Drilling Grant Initiative and Geoscience Initiative."

The EDGI grants provide co-funding for greenfields targets that may lead to the discovery of Tasmania's next mine.

Since the program began, there have been eight rounds released, with funding provided facilitating more than 14,000m of drilling.

The $2 million Geoscience Initiative is providing data to underpin and de-risk the next generation of mineral exploration.