Junior miners is campaigning for the Federal Government to extend and double the size a tax scheme designed to keep investor dollars flowing into high-risk mineral pursuits.

With the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive Scheme set to expire at June 30, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies is pushing for the investor lure to become a permanent fixture of the Federal Budget.

Treasury has doled out more than $182 million under the program since its fiscal 2017-18 debut — all in the hope of encouraging more investment in companies hunting for the new big discovery.

AMEC’s campaign is to be spearheaded by a report from accounting firm BDO estimating the scheme has spurred $404 million of exploration spending and an additional $1.2 billion in capital raisings.

“We need to replenish end of life mines with new greenfield exploration discoveries,” AMEC’s chief executive Warren Pearce said.

“This is a critical investment in Australia’s future and supports mineral exploration — a long-term, high-risk activity.”

AMEC will on Monday commence a push for $200 million to be pumped into the scheme over the next four financial years. It has also called for the scheme allocations to be merit-based, rather than the current first come, first served system.

The former Coalition Government commenced the scheme in 2017 with an allocation of $105 million over four years, and extended it with a further $100m budgeted to be spent from 2021-22 to the end of 2024-25.

There are fears the Albanese Government will not extend the scheme, which supporters argue recognises the extremely risky nature of exploration in unproven areas.