Second largest NT mine on way as Newmont eyes Oberon gold

The world’s largest gold company has its eye on another glittering NT prospect. Read what it is.

The world’s largest gold company, Newmont, is preparing to expand its Territory asset portfolio with the phased roll-out of its Oberon project, about 50km north of the Granites Tanami mine.

Newmont Tanami general manager Justin De Meillon told a Minerals Council event in Darwin last month the company had been studying opportunities at the prospect over a number of years with identifiable links with the company’s business strategy.

“The potential of Oberon aligns with our goal to identify and develop new resources on our world class tenement package within the boundaries of our overall capital allocation strategy,” Mr De Meillon said.

“This will contribute to the long-term sustainability of Tanami. We are currently drilling on site and have a team of geologists and a study team managing these activities.

Oberon senior drilling geologist Jon Walter at the Oberon exploration fields, Tanami mine, Northern Territory, August 2024. Picture: Gera Kazakov

“Ongoing feasibility studies and drilling operations are investigating the potential to expand the known resource through both open pit and underground opportunities.

“Oberon offers a significant medium-term expansion opportunity for the Tanami district including a prospective new mining centre which would add great value for the region and the Territory.”

Previously known as the Titania prospect, Oberon was a “measured, indicated and inferred resource” totalling 2.7m ounces of gold, according to a 2024 study undertaken by the NT Geological Survey.

“The delineation of this deposit represents the culmination of over three decades of exploration by multiple exploration teams, developing the deposit from a low-order, singlepoint geochemical anomaly to a multi-million ounce gold resource, demonstrating the value of persistence of exploration of undercover but highly prospective domain.,” the NTGS report said.

Newmont’s Oberon exploration zone.

Mr De Meillon said the company’s immediate priority was completing the $2.7bn Tanami Expansion 2 upgrade, which would see the mine depth raised to 1.5km and increase volumes by 20 per cent from 2.6m tonnes to 3.2m tonnes.

Commenced in 2021, the life-extension is expected to be completed by 2027.

As well as being the world’s largest gold company, Mr De Meillon pointed to the company’s copper, zinc, lead and silver assets.

“Newmont’s profile is climbing, especially after the acquisition of Newcrest last year,” he said.

“Newmont has a focus on tier one assets which are long life, low cost assets in favorable jurisdictions which produce a minimum of 500,000 ounces of gold equivalent per year.

“This sets the stage for us for growth and allows us the ability to execute major projects including a major expansion in the Territory at the Tanami.

“Tanami is a key asset within our Australian portfolio and a cornerstone of our global operation. It fits this tier one strategy because we have a mine life that will extend for decades and will produce at a rate of over 500,000 ounces of gold per year once our expansion project is complete.

“Since acquiring Tanami in 2002, our operation has become central to Newmont’s long term strategy, contributing significantly to our gold production and the overall business success.

“During this time our production has increased by 190 per cent and the processing plant started in the early 90s has produced over 12m ounces of gold during this time.”