(a) In this section -
"exploration company" means a company, the business of which for the time being consists primarily of exploring for scheduled minerals;
"exploring for scheduled minerals" means searching in the State for deposits of scheduled minerals or testing such deposits or winning access to such deposits, and includes the systematic searching for areas containing scheduled minerals and searching by drilling or other means for scheduled minerals within those areas, but does not include operations which are operations in the course of developing or working a qualifying mine.
(b) This section shall apply as respects expenditure incurred on or after the 1st day of April, 1990.
(2) Subject to subsections (3) to (5), for as long as a company -
(a) is an exploration company,
(b) does not carry on a trade of working a qualifying mine, and
(c) incurs capital expenditure (including such expenditure incurred on the provision of plant and machinery) for the purposes of exploring for
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