Tag: Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is expanding new exploration opportunities and continuing to drive investment and jobs,  with a record $1.7m in grants under the latest Geophysics and Drilling Collaboration program. A total of 18 projects from 15 companies have now been awarded. For the first time since the Resourcing the Territory initiative was launched, projects have also been able to access co-funding to support brownfields drilling programs. In brownfield exploration, geologists look for further deposits near a known mineral deposit or already operating mine. As these areas are known to have high potential for minerals and associated infrastructure, the risk in brownfield exploration is considerably lower. One of the companies awarded co-funding is Vista Gold Australia, which owns the Mount Todd...

AUSTRALIAN lithium developer Core Lithium has received approval of its Mine Management Plan from the Northern Territory Government, marking the achievement of the final major authorisation milestone to build the Territory’s first lithium mine and production facility. Core’s Finniss Lithium Project, located within an hour by road to Darwin Port, is well placed to become Australia’s next lithium producer and the country’s first outside WA.  Core Lithium managing director Stephen Biggins said the Finniss Lithium Project would create more than 200 direct full-time jobs in the Northern Territory, additional employment in South Australia, and had the potential to inject more than half a billion dollars into the local economy during its first three years of operation. “And Core's recent investment...

SOON-TO-BE producer Core Lithium has announced the strategic acquisition of the Walanbanba Lithium Project from Todd River Resources – adjacent to its existing Anningie and Barrow Creek (ABC) project in the Northern Territory. The ABC Lithium Project comprises large-scale lithium rich pegmatite fields and historic tin-tantalum mining districts with established “LCT” granite sources - similar to Core’s Finniss Lithium Project and various WA lithium pegmatite projects. Core’s managing director Stephen Biggins said the company is positioning itself, and the NT, to be an important long-term lithium supplier in Northern Australia. “Core’s recent discussions with a number of large lithium consumers at various levels within the electric vehicle and lithium battery supply chain suggest that world needs to heavily invest in...

A drill rig at Mount Peake mine, under development in the Territory. Image: TNG. BY ELIZABETH FABRI THE resources industry has given the Northern Territory’s revised mining royalty plan the thumbs down, claiming a new system will jeopardise future investment and put jobs at risk. Introduced as part of the 2018 Territory Budget, the new hybrid royalty scheme, effective from 1 July 2019, will force all operating mines to pay increased royalties. This includes paying the greater of the existing 20 per cent profits-scheme or a minimum value-based royalty on their gross mineral production revenue as soon as they start operating – 1 per cent in a mine’s first year, 2 per cent in its second, and 2.5 per cent...

The project is located in the Tennant Creek region. Image: Emmerson Resources. BY ELIZABETH FABRI PROJECT partners Emmerson Resources and mid-tier gold producer Evolution Mining will open the first Northern Territory gold mine in more than a decade, after final approval to begin production at the high grade Edna Beryl gold operation was received in June.  Emmerson’s strategy was aimed at monetising a pipeline of small high grade gold deposits within its Tennant Creek project as a low cost path to production; the company stated that it had identified 15 such mines within its tenements. The first of these, Edna Beryl, will be operated under a tribute agreement with Edna Beryl Mining Company, an operator that specialises in small mines....