The NT wants to rebuild its economy and lure investment from miners and explorers

The new NT Government has put addressing crime and rebuilding its economy at the top of its priority list, and that’s good for miners.

The new Northern Territory government is counting on progressing its election promises to attract resources investment. Pic: Getty Images

• NT Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley says the new CLP government is progressing its election promises

• Addressing crime and rebuilding economy expected to draw resources investment

• Government looking to streamline approvals and cut red tape

In a country famed for its abundance of resources, the Northern Territory more than holds its own with mineral wealth running the gamut from gold, copper and antimony to uranium along with potentially vast quantities of gas sitting within the Beetaloo sub-basin.

Though there is no question about this bounty, actually being able to carry out exploration and production is still dependent on securing government approvals, a process that often gets bogged down in red tape and one that plays a big role in attracting resources investment in an internationally competitive market for capital.

This, of course, begs the question of what impact the newly elected Finocchiaro Country Liberal Party Government, which swept to power in a landslide in August 2024, will do to push the NT's resource development to the top of the agenda.

Speaking to Stockhead, Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley – who also holds the Mining and Energy portfolio – flagged that it wouldn’t just be business as usual. Rather, the new government has already progressed three pillars that it had gone to the election with – addressing crime, rebuilding the economy and restoring lifestyles .

While these pillars are being progressed concurrently, there’s little doubt that dealing with crime is the main priority.

“We are dealing with the crime issue now because we think that’s the main issue and that impacts a whole lot of other things,” Maley said.

“There has certainly been a bit of negative press about Alice Springs and basically right across the NT for the last few years.

“So the first thing we need to do to rebuild the economy is deal with the crime issue.

“We want to make it so that you as a worker are going to be safe, you can bring your family who will also be safe and ultimately the assets owned by the company aren’t going to be damaged, vandalised, etc.”

Major Northern Territory resource projects. Pic: Resourcing the Territory

Streamlining approvals and cutting red tape

Moving on to the second pillar, Maley said the Finocchiaro government was focusing on two things – the Fast-track Approvals taskforce and the Territory Coordinator bill.

“If I stand on my soap box and say that I am going to cut red tape, people will just laugh because that’s what every politician says,” he commented.

“What we have done instead is bring together an industry-led group to give us actual practical examples of red tape and ways to make it easier to do business.

“That group has been formed and are now out doing their work and will come back to us with some ideas of practical examples to make it easier to do business in the Territory.”

The Territory Coordinator is an independent statutory body that will sit alongside government agencies and serve to fast-track major investments, streamline approvals and boost the NT’s competitiveness.

“It can ask departments to do things, it would also centrally be a decision maker and step in if it needs right down the end of the line,” Maley said.

“There have been public forums about it, there are fact sheets and a whole lot of information online. We had over 500 submissions submitted during the public consultation process and now we are going through those.

“Some of them were just agency ones where whole groups of people would use the same format while others were from industry, so we are going through all that and sort out what’s good, what’s bad, how can we make that legislation work for the NT.”

There is major resources knowhow sitting in the chair. Former Inpex NT general manager Stuart Knowles, who was appointed as the interim Territory coordinator, has been out and about talking to people to help ensure the legislation is fit for purpose.

Digging into the details

As previously noted, the NT has no shortage of resources.

Notable areas include the Tennant Creek region about 500km north of Alice Springs, which has a long history of mineral exploration and where companies such as Emmerson Resources (ASX:ERM) and CuFe (ASX:CUF) operate, and the rich Tanami region – home to Newmont’s Tanami gold mine, which has operated since 2002.

Beyond that and the next generation of discoveries are waiting to be made by juniors such as Prodigy Gold (ASX:PRX) .

Prodigy has JVs with well-heeled majors IGO (ASX:IGO) and Newmont and recently lodged a mining lease application for the tenement containing its Hyperion deposit, which is a substantial find boasting indicated and inferred resources of 8.6Mt at 1.5g/t Au for 407,000 ounces of gold.

"The process will take some time to complete, requiring agreements with Traditional Owners via the Central Land Council as well as environmental approvals before the lease can be granted. This work will commence in early 2025 with the plan to simultaneously continue the development of the deposit and progress the approvals," Prodigy MD Mark Edwards noted in the company's recent quarterly report.

There is little doubt the Territory's shift in favour of mineral developments will put PRX in good stead.

The territory is also known for its uranium endowment, which includes some of Australia’s most significant and highest grade uranium deposits, though none have been mined since the closure of the Ranger mine, now a major rehabilitation initiative for Rio Tinto.

But unlike some Australian states there are no blanket restrictions on uranium exploration and mining in the NT, with Maley saying that uranium would be treated as another mining application, though it would still need to comply with Federal and NT legislation.

That will be welcomed by uranium explorers such as DevEx Resources (ASX:DEV) and Greenvale Energy (ASX:GRV).

Other major operations across the NT include Rio's Gove alumina refinery and South32 (ASX:S32) and Anglo American's GEMCO JV, the world's highest quality manganese site where remediation works are ongoing to get it back up and running after a cyclone smashed infrastructure last year.

The Beetaloo Sub-Basin. Pic: Department of Industry, Science and Resources

The next major gas basin?

He added that the NT government is fully supportive of the gas industry and would work with any company to unlock the potential of the Beetaloo Sub-Basin, which covers 28,000km2 and has been estimated to host in-place 500 trillion cubic feet of gas just in the highly prospective Velkerri B layer alone.

“We are 100% behind that gas, we want to get it happening as quick as we can and we will do whatever it takes,” Maley noted.

“We want to make sure that the gas in the Beetaloo for example and also the mining companies have the opportunity to come here into NT, and 1) be safe, 2) have timely applications and interactions with the Government to ensure that their business can be focused on drilling or digging.”

He also raised the opportunities for carbon, capture and storage, noting that Santos is repurposing the depleted Bayu Undan reservoir to store large volumes of carbon dioxide, starting with CO2 from its new Barossa gas field.

“That is also an industry we want to support and try and get it so that other countries can export CO2 for us to store.”

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While CuFe, Prodigy Gold and Greenvale Energy are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as The NT wants to rebuild its economy and lure investment from miners and explorers