Junior miner approvals are mostly not procurement — they're heritage clearances, environmental permits, tenement licence conditions, and native title agreements.
| Capability | Tenderfield | Spreadsheets | GroundOne |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exploration licence approvals workflows | ✗ Not available | Ad hoc tracking | ✓ Native |
| Heritage clearance management | ✗ Not available | ✗ Not available | ✓ Included |
| Environmental condition tracking | ✗ Not available | ✗ Not available | ✓ Included |
| Tenement register integration | ✗ Not available | Spreadsheet | ✓ Native |
| Procurement & contract approvals | ✓ Core feature | Manual process | ✓ Included |
| ASX Listing Rules compliance calendar | ✗ Not available | Spreadsheet | ✓ Pre-loaded |
| Board reporting from live approvals data | ✗ Not available | Manual assembly | ✓ One click |
| Risk register linked to approvals status | ✗ Not available | ✗ Not available | ✓ Integrated |
| Survives key person leaving | Partial | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Time to first value | Weeks | Immediate (sunk time) | ✓ Weeks |
Tenderfield handles procurement and tendering workflows effectively. For many industries, that's the core approvals challenge. For junior miners, it's a small part of a much larger picture.
The approvals that keep junior miners up at night are regulatory: heritage surveys and clearances before any ground disturbance, environmental conditions attached to programme of work approvals, native title notification processes, DMIRS programme of work sign-offs, fauna and flora management plans, and exploration licence conditions that have to be met on an ongoing basis.
None of these flow through a procurement system. They flow through regulators, traditional owner groups, environmental agencies, and state mining departments. Managing them requires a workflow tool that understands the regulatory context — what triggers a requirement, what the notification periods are, what evidence is needed, who has to sign.
GroundOne's approvals module is built around this regulatory approval landscape. Procurement and contract approvals are also included — but they're a small component of a system designed for the full regulatory approvals burden junior miners carry.
If procurement management is your primary workflow challenge and you're satisfied with how your regulatory approvals are tracked elsewhere, Tenderfield is a well-designed tool for that specific use case. It's particularly strong for organisations running formal tender processes regularly.
GroundOne tracks the approvals that actually determine whether exploration proceeds.