The outcome of the current review by Government permitting agency New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals (NZPM) will be made public later this month.
While Mr Bridges did announce a $6.4million extension of aero-magnetic surveying around the South Island, which would benefit new entrants to the sector most, NZPM's clawback of costs and permit fee review was of most concern to operators.
As an industry measure of the current hard times, $42million was spent on exploration in 2013, just $8million the following year and $12million last year.
About 140 of the 200 delegates at the annual conference of the New Zealand branch of the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (AusIMM) in Wellington attended Mr Bridges' speech yesterday morning.
Attendees are struggling to work out if the sector, hard hit by plunging coal prices, increasing production costs in general and a regulatory regime which is not finding international favour at present, has yet hit rock bottom in commodity prices.
While gold production and prices is the gift which keeps giving, all other commodities are struggling in the face of China's soft demand and otherwise near record low prices.
Mr Bridges contends the sector ''still plays a major role in New Zealand's economy'', given its more than $1billion contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), and adds significantly to export receipts.
He said NZPM's focus on compliance issues for permit holders, and more forward planning, had evolved into 20 new sets of mineral guidelines on applications and compliance.
While NZPM had halved the permit processing backlog from 300 to 150, it had also recovered more than 90% of overdue fees, which must reflect the actual cost of NZPM's staff time, he said.
''Some may question a fees review right now, but the fact is the fees regime has not been fully reviewed since 2006, while costs have broadly increased in line with inflation over that time,'' Mr Bridges said.
When pressed to explain further in question time, Mr Bridges said two options were under consideration over a fee hike: ''either a faster trajectory or a longer trajectory'', of bringing in higher fees.
''We have to keep up with cost recovery ...but on the other side of the ledger we don't want to see the sector less productive,'' he said.
Mr Bridges had noted it was his fourth consecutive annual minister's speech at an AusIMM conference, and in keeping with tradition, he was unable to make himself available for media interviews.
Senior figures in AusIMM later described Mr Bridges' speech and its content as ''flat'' and ''underwhelming'', while another questioned whether he had too many portfolios to cover.
''We were under the impression there was some [positive] regulatory change to come out. This isn't it,'' one AusIMM member said after Mr Bridges' departure.
Along with more aero-magnetic work, Mr Bridges said because of ''cost saving'' there would be soil geochemistry surveys across Southland, Otago, Nelson and Murchison.
-Reporter Simon Hartley is sponsored to the conference by AusIMM.
