Mineral with coin

Critical Minerals

The Northern Territory has a number of substantial critical minerals projects with potential near-term production.

The Northern Territory has defined mineral resources for 17 globally recognised critical minerals that includes aluminium (as bauxite), cobalt, copper, lithium PDF (4.6 MB), magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, phosphate , rare earth elements, titanium (as ilmenite), tungsten, vanadium, zinc, and zirconium (as zircon) plus the addition of graphite and gallium in February 2024. The Territory has geological potential for a further 12 emerging critical minerals.

Download the newly updated Critical Minerals in the Northern Territory 2024.

The Critical Minerals in the Northern Territory has also been translated in Japanese, Korean and Indonesian. Download the translated 2023 guides through GEMIS. Translated versions of the 2024 guide will be available soon.

Read a summary factsheet here, critical minerals factsheet PDF (2.5 MB)

For lithium opportunities, download the Territory's lithium opportunities factsheet PDF (4.6 MB).

For rare earth elements opportunities, download the Territory's rare earth elements opportunities factsheet PDF (4.2 MB).

Mines

Finniss – Core Lithium Ltd 30.6 Mt at 1.31% Li2O

Finniss lithium mine is now in production with the first shipment of spodumene concentrate exported in March 2023. The initial open cut mine is located at the Grants deposit in the north of the Bynoe pegmatite field, with staged development planned across other deposits at the Finniss Project.

Projects

The Northern Territory (NT) has a number of substantial critical minerals projects, with potential near-term production rare earths, vanadium, titanium, tungsten and molybdenum, defined resources of cobalt, nickel and magnesium and emerging opportunities for graphite and gallium.

The NT is an emerging lithium producer, with pegmatite-hosted lithium resources defined at Core Lithium’s Finniss project, in the Bynoe pegmatite field close to Darwin. Core Lithium have commenced mining operations and the separation plant in due to be completed in 2023, with the first shipment of spodueme concentrate exported in March 2023. Exploration is also ongoing to increase the resource base.

Greenfields exploration potential for lithium also occurs in the Aileron Province in central Australia associated historic tin and tantalum mining fields.

Other companies with lithium exploration projects include Lithium Plus Pty Ltd.

Download the Territory's lithium opportunities factsheet PDF (4.6 MB).

Lithium resources in the NT

Operating mine

In approvals

  • BP33 (Finniss)– Core Lithium Ltd 10.5 Mt @ 1.53% Li2O (included in Finniss global resource)

Lithium recent exploration results in the NT

Other companies currently exploring for lithium - Ragusa Minerals Ltd, Charger Minerals NL, Desoto Resources Ltd, Evergreen Lithium Ltd, Askari Metals Ltd, Australasian Metals Ltd, Encounter Resources Ltd, Eastern Metals Ltd, Lithium Springs Ltd, Oceana Lithium Ltd and Tivan Ltd.

The Territory’s most significant rare earths deposit is at Nolans Bore in the Aileron Province, 135km northwest of Alice Springs, owned by Arafura Rare Earths Ltd, which is rich in magnet-feed rare earths, particularly NdPr. The most abundant rare earth-bearing minerals at Nolans Bore are fluorapatite, allanite and monazite. The company has most approvals in place and is planning on-site processing to produce 4,440 tonnes per annum of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) oxide and 600 tpa of a mixed middle-heavy rare earth (SEG/HRE) oxide.

The Aileron and Irindina provinces have high exploration potential for rare earths. Potential also exists for alluvial deposits of rare earths containing monazite and xenotime, including at the Charley Creek project, 120km west of Alice Springs, which has a large alluvial resource.

The Tanami Region also has high potential for rare earths given the existence of vein-hosted xenotime resources at Northern Minerals’ Browns Range project in adjacent regions of WA.

Rare earths resources in the NT

Rare earths recent exploration results in the NT

The NT has large vanadium resources associated with mafic-hosted vanadium-rich magnetite in the Aileron Province in Central Australia. Tivan Ltd’s Mount Peake deposit near Barrow Creek is an advanced project with most approvals in place.

Tivan are reviewing plans to produce high quality V2O5, TiO2 and Fe2O3 from a processing plant in Darwin. A similar style of mineralisation occurs at the Jervois vanadium prospect, northeast of Alice Springs.

A second style of vanadium mineralisation is associated with sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, also in Central Australia, including the Bigrlyi deposit in the Ngalia Basin.

Vanadium resources in the NT

The largest known cobalt resource in the NT is at the Browns project near Batchelor in the Pine Creek Orogen, where cobalt occurs with copper, nickel and lead. Sediment-hosted cobalt-nickel-copper mineralisation occurs in the McArthur Basin, and cobalt also occurs within polymetallic copper-bearing mineralisation in the Warramunga and Aileron Provinces. Opportunities exist to extract cobalt from tailings associated with historic mines in the Tennant Creek mineral field.

Cobalt resources in the NT

  • Rover 1 – Castile Resources Ltd 5.58 Mt @ 1.76 g/t Au, 1.49% Cu, 0.07% Co, 23.2% magnetite
  • Peko Tailings – Elmore Ltd 3.62 Mt @ 1.1 g/t Au, 0.22% Cu, 0.1% Co
  • Browns – Northern Territories Resources Pty Ltd – Oxide: 9.4 Mt @ 0.14% Co, 0.82% Cu, 0.14% Ni; Sulfide: 45.1 Mt @ 3.74% Pb, 0.73% Zn, 0.35% Cu, 0.09% Co, 0.07% Ni
  • Stanton – Resolution Minerals Ltd 0.94 Mt @ 0.13% Co, 0.12% Cu, 0.061% Ni
  • Basil – Mithril Resources Ltd 26.5 Mt @ 0.57% Cu, 0.05% Co

Cobalt recent exploration results in the NT

A number of high-grade magnesite (magnesium carbonate) deposits occur near Batchelor in the Pine Creek Orogen, close to infrastructure and Darwin Port. They occur as stratabound bodies within the Celia and Coomalie Dolostones and include the Winchester and Huandot deposits. These have potential for direct shipping of magnesite rock, or export of dead burned magnesia or caustic calcined magnesia.

Magnesium resources in the NT

The Territory is prospective but under-explored for nickel. The only defined resources are 44,400 tonnes of nickel included in the polymetallic Browns resource in the Pine Creek Orogen, and a small resource at Northern Cobalt’s Stanton Co-Cu-Ni prospect (see Cobalt).

There is considerable potential for nickel sulfide deposits in the Aileron and Irindina provinces where a number of prospects occur, and numerous generations of mafic and ultramafic intrusions are considered fertile for nickel mineralisation and remain effectively unexplored. Feeders to the widespread flood basalts of the Kalkarindji Province are also a prospective exploration target.

Companies with nickel exploration projects include IGO Ltd and Kidman Resources Ltd.

The NT has several tungsten fields and has historically produced 6,043 tonne of tungsten concentrate. The largest known resource is at Molyhil, 250km northeast of Alice Springs. Molyhil is hosted in a scheelite-molybdenite-magnetite skarn within the Aileron Province.

Thor Energy PLC have completed a Definitive Feasibility Study at Molyhil and recently announced an earn-in with Investigator Resources Ltd.  Thor also have maiden resources for the Samarkand and White Violet deposits in the nearby Bonya Hills.

Further tungsten occurrences occur in the Hatches Creek and Wauchope tungsten fields in the Davenport Province that produced most historic production of wolframite and scheelite.

Tungsten resources in the NT

Tungsten recent exploration results in the NT

Graphite: The Pine Creek Orogen, Aileron Province and Tanami Region all have known potential to contain graphite. Kingsland Minerals Ltd having announced exciting results from the Leilyn graphite project near Pine Creek with intersections such as 206 m @ 10% total graphite content and 266 m @ 15.0 g/t Ga. A maiden resource is expected in early 2024. The graphitic carbon occurs in a 20 km strike length of graphitic schist. Tivan Ltd intersected broad intervals of >5% graphite in drilling at their Mount Peake project in the Aileron Province in 2014. Graphite is also known to occur at a number of gold deposits in the Pine Creek and Tanami goldfields.

Germanium and gallium: Gallium and germanium are known to occur as a by-product in zinc deposits, with potential to occur associated with zinc in the McArthur Basin.  Gallium has been discovered associated with Kingsland Minerals Ltd's Leilyn graphite deposit with the best intersection of 266 m @ 15.0 g/t Ga from surface.

Antimony: Antimony occurs as a potential by-product in a number of gold deposits in the Northern Territory, and potential of recovering antimony from tailings, particularly in Pine Creek Orogen, which is currently untested.

Bismuth: The Tennant Creek mineral field contains significant gold-bismuth-copper mineralisation with bismuth occurring within a number of projects under feasibility including Castile Resources Ltds Rover 1 copper-gold deposit, southwest of Tennant Creek. Recent high grade bismuth (and gold) discoveries include Emmerson Resources Ltd’s historic Golden Forty deposit.

Tantalum: The Territory has a history of tantalum (and tin) mining throughout the outcropping pegmatite fields of the Pine Creek Orogen and northern Aileron Province. Significant exploration potential exist in these regions and undercover, while production is possible in association with lithium from pegmatite fields in the Bynoe region.

Niobium: Lithium-bearing pegmatites in the Northern Territory locally also have high values of niobium, with the potential for economically significant deposits to occur. High grade niobium (with rare earths) has also been discovered in mineralised carbonatites in the Aileron Province in adjacent regions of Western Australia, with potential extending into western regions of the NT.

Tin: The Territory has a history of tin mining in the Pine Creek Orogen and northern Aileron Province. The Mount Wells project in the Pine Creek Orogen includes an Inferred Mineral Resource of 3,000 t of contained tin, with exploration potential

Helium: High concentration of naturally occurring helium have been recorded from petroleum wells in the Amadeus Basin, with concentration of up to 9% helium intersected in sub-salt plays in the south of the Basin. Peak Helium Pty Ltd is targeting helium in the southern Amadeus Basin, partly through joint ventures with Central Petroleum Ltd and Santos Ltd. Australia’s only helium extraction plant, BOC Darwin Helium Operations based in Darwin, already processes gas derived from the offshore Bayu-Undan field, and may be able to support further helium development in the Territory.

Silicon: Territory Sands Pty Ltd are currently exploring for high-purity silica sand in the Sturt Plateau region.

High Purity Alumina: Enova Mining Ltd are investigating the production of high purity alumina from saprolite and clays as a by-product of processing at the Charley Creek rare earths project.

Niobium: Lithium-bearing pegmatites in the Northern Territory locally also have high values of niobium, with the potential for economically significant deposits to occur.

Platinum Group Elements: The Coronation Hill deposit (now inaccessible) contains 5.7t palladium and 1.7t platinum. Other PGE-gold occurrences occur in the Pine Creek area.  PGEs have also been intersected in drilling of mafic intrusions in the Aileron Province in central Australia.

Germanium and gallium: Gallium and germanium are known to occur as a by-product in zinc deposits, with potential to occur associated with zinc in the McArthur Basin.

There is no current known resources or exploration for Beryllium, Chromium, Hafnium, Indium or Rhenium in the Northern Territory, but the Territory remains largely unexplored for these commodities.

NTGS reports

Download Critical Minerals in the Northern Territory 2023.

Search GEMIS for other NTGS reports on critical minerals.

Cobalt and magnesium

Lithium

  • Rawlings (2019). Update on the Finniss lithium project. AGES 2019 Proceedings.
  • Rawlings (2017). Lithium-rich pegmatites of the Bynoe field. AGES 2017 Proceedings.
  • Frater (2005). Tin-tantalum pegmatite mineralisation of the Northern Territory. NTGS Report 16.

Rare earth elements

  • Huston et al (2017). The Nolans rare earth element-phosphorus-uranium mineral system: formation and modification over 1800 million years. AGES 2017 Proceedings.
  • Hussey (2003). Rare earth element mineralisation in the eastern Arunta Region. NTGS Record 2003-004.

Tungsten

  • McGloin et al (2019). Using tourmaline to identify base metal and tungsten mineralising processes in the Jervois mineral field and Bonya Hills, Aileron Province. NTGS Record 2019-001.

Vanadium

  • Beyer et al (2016). Summary of results. NTGS laser ablation ICP-MS in situ zircon and baddeleyite geochronology project: Mount Peake Gabbro, Arunta Region. NTGS Record 2016-002.
  • Schmid et al 2012. JSU Ngalia Basin Uranium Mineral System Project, NTGS Record 2012-003.

Explore NT projects

Operating mine
Care and maintenance
In approvals process
Under feasibility
JORC resource
Exploration highlight
Bauxite
Copper
Critical Minerals
Diamond
Gold
Iron
Manganese
Mineral Sands
Phosphate and Potash
Uranium
Zinc, Lead and Silver