Accelerate project investment

Section 2 considers options to accelerate project investment decisions through the lens of an investor.

The market for investment capital is tight for Northern Territory mining projects for a range of reasons. However, finance will flow to projects that can demonstrate an acceptable balance between risk and reward.

There are in excess of 21 mining projects in the pipeline for development and more are currently investigating investment opportunities. Conditions for investment need to be attractive to bring these projects to fruition and to secure an ongoing pipeline of capital for the discovery and development of the Territory’s mineral potential.

The taskforce received widespread feedback that the Territory’s royalty scheme is uncompetitive and a significant deterrent to private investment. Given this, the government commissioned an independent comparative analysis of the royalty scheme and an assessment of potential alternative frameworks that could deliver more competitive project outcomes while preserving the key policy tenets of efficiency, adequacy, certainty, simplicity and transparency.

The taskforce also recognises that any changes to the royalty scheme could have broader implications, particularly for the Aboriginals Benefit Account.

This section also analyses the drivers for the various components of the financing market for mining projects. It seeks to identify where governments have a role to play in enhancing project financing opportunities, with particular focus on the parts of the lifecycle of a mining project that are most vulnerable to a lack of investor interest.

What does success look like

Download the Final Report

Download the Executive Summary PDF (2.2 MB) including consolidated recommendations and possible specific actions.

Download the full version of the Mineral Development Taskforce Final Report PDF (10.4 MB) including recommendations and possible specific actions.