How Tennant Mines will open new opportunities in NT’s new golden age
Tennant Mines’ golden bounty is already flowing through Tennant Creek and the Barkly. Read who’s winning.
Northern Territory
Don't miss out on the headlines from Northern Territory. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Tennant Creek business community is overwhelmingly behind Tennant Mines’ Barkly gold and copper revitalisation.
Officially opened last Thursday, Tennant Mines and its 100 per cent shareholder Pan African Resources have brought large scale mining back to the Barkly after more than two decades.
Starting with old tailings, Territory Mines plans eventually to mine new gold as well as copper to feed into their processing plant at Nobles Nob.
Other old mines in its sights are Warrego Juno, White Ghost and hopefully dozens of others, prompting talk of a 30-year project life.
The NT News spoke to a number of businesses already benefiting from Territory Mines’ $94 million investment so far in the Barkly’s resources sector.
Noor Fahrully and Ade Rizal - Eldorado Village kitchen operators
A hungry miner is an unhappy miner, which is where Tennant Creek couple Noor Fahrully and Ade Rizal come in.
Noor and Ade have been feeding the Barkly since their 2008 arrival in the town during their days running the Memorial and Sporties clubs.
During a period in between jobs last year, a chance meeting between Ade and Tennant Mines team-members on Paterson Street opened up a new business opportunity for the kitchen specialists.
Discussed that day on the town’s main drag was an opportunity for Ade and Noor to operate the workers kitchen at Tennant Mines Eldorado Village work camp, built out of the old Eldorado Hotel that the company paid $4m to convert into worker accommodation.
During 12 years at Sporties, the couple’s food had already tantalised the tastebuds of the Tennant Mines team during their early days in the town and over the next few months the kitchen’s roof was removed and a new industrial kitchen was installed at the Eldorado, with larger items being lowered in by crane.
Since opening in November, the village buffet has been stuffed with flavours including chicken cacciatore, Korean steak and cabbage, veal schnitzel, cheesy mashed potato puffs, crispy parmesan asparagus, beef ribs, creamy garlic sauce, sweet and spicy garlic steak pasta, Mongolian lamb and dozens more offerings aside.
“I try not to get anybody bored,” Noor said.
“Every Sunday we sit down with all the chefs and work out what we have to offer. All the people here are big eaters.
“One of the miners said he has worked with different mines in Australia and said this is the first time he has seen such variety.”
Local suppliers like the IGA supermarket and Barkly Wholesale provide fruit, vegetables and various grocery items like oils and flavours while the meat and seafood comes in from Darwin. Noor said the mine has shifted the town’s mood.
“When I came here in 2008 it was busy but after that it slowed down because of all the crime but now it’s started to build again and people are moving back here.”
Gunter Samuel is one such revenant, coming back to Tennant from Queensland to work as one of three other chefs with Noor and Ade again, after a previous partnership at Sporties.
The team now prepares about 1700 meals a month to hungry miners providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for crews on a 24-hour roster.
John ‘Dicko’ Dickson - Outback Outfitters
Outback Outfitters’ John ‘Dicko’ Dickson was at the first seminar held by Tennant Mines at Battery Hill in 2021 to introduce the Barkly to its Nobles Nob revitalisation project.
“They gave a speech about what they wanted to do, when they wanted it to happen and that they wanted to support local business as much as they possibly could,” he said.
“You think to yourself ‘I’ve heard it all before but nothing eventuates’, but Tenant Mines have been really good and it’s good to see the money that’s been injected into the place.
“The town was just hanging in there really since Warrego and the other mines closed down.
“It’s been like a welfare town more or less until these guys. When you’re trying to pay off a shop and pay yourself a wage, and the overheads and the body corporate fees it all adds up. I’m really grateful to these guys for supporting us.”
Dicko and his business partner Peter Davenport have owned the shop since 2004 and after initial introductions during the Battery Hill event, contracts were signed to deliver a local workwear solution for Tennant Mines including safety boots, hi-viz jackets, shirts and pants through their collaboration with Bisley Workwear.
Aside from his large stock selection, Peter’s in the shop early every day ready to serve.
“My partner starts work at the hospital at 6am so I drop her off at 5.45 and come straight here,” he said.
“A while ago I had a bloke standing in the doorway at a quarter past six because his safety boots were falling apart.”
Rose Ahearn - Long-time Tennant Creek resident
Long-time Tennant Creek resident Rose Ahearn is in unambiguous in her support for Tennant Mines involvement in the town and the benefits its bringing the Barkly.
“You can just feel the buzz,” she said behind the counter at Outback Caravan Park, where she works weekends.
“They’ve done a lot of good things for all the businesses. They buy a lot of product from inside the town and they employ a lot of people from inside the town, so I think they’ve done a great job.
“People are staying in the town and they’re bringing people form out of town and it’s been great. It’s given it the nice boost that it needs.”
Michael Slattery and Leisha Booth - TC Formwork and Concreting
Two years ago TC Formwork and Concreting’s Michael Slattery was a Tennant Creek sole trader doing roads around the Barkly and Centre.
He came to the town five years ago after a year in Alice Springs on top of 15 in Darwin.
He well knows the lay of the business landscape in the deep north.
Life and business partner Leisha Booth said Michael’s registered sole trader status changed when Tennant Mines came to town to revitalise Nobles Nob and other once-lucrative but now abandoned Barkly gold and copper fields.
She said like most jobs in the town, TC Formwork and Concreting first heard about Tennant Mines plans through word of mouth when a concreter is required.
“We had small works asphalt business and we’d tender for a lot for Barkly Council and Local Authority builds and we won tenders against a few out of town companies,” Michael said.
“Tennant Mines was good enough to give us a go. There’s a lot of big slab and excavation works. We’ve done roofing, general clean-ups but mostly we concrete.”
He described the transition from sole trader to small business operator as “interesting” as he adapted to the challenge of securing and retaining a workforce.
“I had five local lads with me just pretty much out there tidying up, doing pours, setting up and that kind of crack,” he said.
“It was interesting coming from being a sole trader because trying to keep people in Tenant is very hard.
“That was the thing with the mine, there was always something going on in the town with the mine.”
With Tennant Mines’ $94m mine and processing plant completed, Michael said there’ll still be plenty more work on site as well as the Eldorado Village workers’ camp which will be expanded as workforce requirements increase.
Michael said the icing on the cake for Tennant and the Barkly is that the scale of the mine will see additional housing and infrastructure upgrades in the town as well as certainty for the local businesses that supply him.
“There’ll still be a fair supply of work because the town will need more houses with people coming in. They support the local suppliers and there’d be no small companies like mine here without them. They could easily go and source from outside of Tennant but they’re happy to use local even it costs a few extra dollars.
“Some interstate builders just send a road train with everything on the back and they don’t spend any money here.”
He said Tennant Mines’ local procurement focus meant cash filtered through the town from them to their suppliers, such as BJ Trading and Hire in Standley Street.
“We always source our stuff locally, especially from BJ trading. He’s only small, he’s been here for years and he’s loving the business, especially when we’re going down there getting mesh and steel and everything like that,” he said.
“Tennant Mines will always have work and other small businesses will always have work. There’s always something to do out there.”
Darrin Whatley and Sam Cameron - Darrin’s Rubbish Removal et al
As well as Darrin’s Rubbish Removal, Darrin Whatley and Sam Cameron run Cheeky Bums Nappies, a disability supply business and, since the resurgence of exploration and mining interest in the Barkly, safety and PPE equipment supplier Tennant Safety.
It’s a natural fit for the former nurses who have taken diversification in the Barkly to a new level in their family run business.
“Our involvement with Tenant Mines is as a one-stop-shop for safety, rubbish and recycling throughout their business,” Darrin said. “When I saw Tennant Mines and other mining companies were coming to town, there was obviously a need for safety gear and PPE and we worked with Safety Hub in Adelaide to supply that.
Since Territory Mines and other resource companies came to the district, 134 contractors had arrived in Tennant Creek to support the various projects. Of those he said about a dozen had settled permanently and others were considering a move.
Prominent in Barkly Chamber of Commerce and a strong advocate for the local business community, Darrin called on the federal and NT governments to step up and deliver essential and long overdue infrastructure.
“We want government help to build businesses in the community,” he said. “We want more training and education and we want a bigger airport, we want better roads in and out of town and we want a hospital upgrade to service the mining sector.
“We needed action two years ago for this build-up. We knew it was happening and we’re going backwards not forwards. The Barkly region has been left behind. We constantly see new things happening in Darwin north of the Berrimah Line, and it’s not funny anymore.”
More Coverage
Originally published as How Tennant Mines will open new opportunities in NT’s new golden age
Cunningham: Administrator appears to have made political preference clear
A story that went almost unnoticed during this year’s federal election campaign involved the NT’s Administrator appearing to express support for the Australian Labor Party, writes Matt Cunningham.
Sickening footage shows kangaroo bashed, stoned by laughing men
Disturbing animal videos, believed to have been taken in a remote NT community, have reportedly caught the attention of NT authorities. Warning: Graphic.