The Territory is seeing an escalating boom in mineral exploration with expenditure in the December quarter up 38% to $45.1 million on 2020.
This is the highest quarterly spend on mineral exploration in the Territory since 2012, according to recent ABS statistics.
For the 2021 calendar year, mineral exploration expenditure in the NT was $153.4 million, up 38 per cent on the figure of $110.8 million for 2020. This is the highest annual figure since 2011, and the third highest on record.
Gold remains the most sought-after commodity in the Territory, accounting for $78.2 million of the expenditure, with activity strongly increasing for copper, lithium and uranium exploration as well.
There are already 20 mining projects working towards a Final Investment Decision (FID) in the Territory with a combined value of over $6 billion.
KGL Resources has already received environment and mining approvals for their Jervois Base Metal Project in Central Australia. KGL Resources recently announced it had entered a binding offtake agreement with Glencore for the sale of 100% of copper concentrate from Jervois to Glencore's Mount Isa copper smelter. This is a major milestone for KGL and the Jervois Project, with 360 jobs during construction and 300 jobs during operation.
Arafura Resources also has environment approvals for their Nolans Project in Central Australia. Subject to mining approvals, Arafura is targeting final investment decision later this year and have just received a $30 million boost from the Federal Government's Modern Manufacturing Initiative - which will go towards constructing a $90.8 million rare earths separation plant at Nolans.
Core Lithium has also commenced construction of their $89 million Finniss Project October 2021 with first production planned later this year, creating up to 250 jobs during construction and operations.
The exploration boom is projected to continue in 2022, with strong commodity prices and a very strong uptake in mineral exploration licences in the Territory in 2021. During 2021, 444 new applications for mineral exploration licences were received (up 255% from 174 in 2020), 278 were granted (up from 71 in 2020) and only 61 licences ceased (down from 146 in 2020).
