Business news from across the Northern Territory: Latest highlights include the first Mini Woolies program opening in the Territory and a $2.5 million tender awarded to GHD to draft, design and document the upgrade to the Mereenie Loop in Central Australia. Also making resource news is graphite and gallium being added to NT’s list of critical minerals, Rio Tinto’s Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) applying for another 10-year lease at the controversial Jabiluka uranium project, and Kingsland Minerals confirmed to be sitting on a colossal graphite deposit at its Leliyn project.
Companies
First Mini Woolies opens in NT
The Mini Woolies program, coinciding with the opening of its new site at Henbury School in Tiwi—the first in NT—will simulate a supermarket setting. This learning space aims to support the education of students with disabilities through hands-on learning experiences.
A classroom at the school was converted into a simulation space like a Woolworths supermarket, with baskets for fresh food, shelving for groceries, ticketing, signage and Woolworths-branded uniforms that students can wear to create an immersive educational experience.
The school provides for students from Year 7 to Year 12 with a range of intellectual disabilities. In the later years, the school offers several programs to encourage independence and promote positive pathways to post-school options.
Established in 2018, the Mini Woolies program now operates in more than 55 locations across Australia and New Zealand, giving 4,000 young people with disabilities the opportunity to engage with their learning spaces.
Construction
$2.5 million awarded to GHD for plans for the Red Centre Way upgrade
A $2.5 million tender had been awarded to GHD to draft, design and document the upgrade to the Mereenie Loop, also known as Red Centre Way, in Central Australia. The fund would be used for stakeholder consultation and moving to a detailed design stage, including waterways investigation, engineering survey, geotechnical survey, cost engineering and estimation, and resource investigation.
The tender does not commit to the actual road paving and will jumpstart the bureaucratic paperwork foundation for the long-awaited 140 km of sealed road.
Infrastructure Minister Joel Bowden said the upgrade designs aim to bolster road safety, decrease closures, and create a better experience for motorists. “In upgrading the Mereenie Loop, all signs point to increased tourism, benefiting local businesses first.”
Resources
Graphite and gallium added to NT’s list of critical minerals
More mining juniors are set to benefit from the NT government’s mineral funding programs after graphite and gallium were added to the list of critical minerals. Graphite and gallium demand are high as countries struggle to secure ex-China supplies after the Middle Kingdom, which has a monopoly on the two crucial minerals supply chains, imposed export controls on the minerals last year as a national security move.
The NT now has 17 globally recognised critical mineral deposits on its list of resources, up from 15 last year. The NT currently has six operational mines for vital minerals, with ten critical mineral projects at different stages of regulatory approvals.
“We want more investment in our critical minerals sector, and the $9.5 million Resourcing the Territory program provides exploration grants and free-of-charge geoscience data to support and de-risk exploration investment,” Mining minister Mark Monaghan said.
The grants apply to greenfield and brownfield projects whereby the NT government will co-fund up to 50 per cent of drilling costs, surveys and innovative exploration targeting.
ERA takes on traditional owners in Kakadu row
Rio Tinto’s Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) has applied for another ten-year lease at the controversial Jabiluka uranium project in NT, only a day after the traditional owners condemned the lammed the proposed mineral lease extension. ERA said extending the lease was in the best interests of Jabiluka’s traditional owners, the Mirarr people, and confirmed the application had already been lodged with the NT government.
The current lease, which ends in August, gives the Mirarr the right to veto mining at Jabiluka. ERA has never mined Jabiluka—known among the world’s richest uranium deposits—that the Kakadu National Park borders and the Mirarr have held their veto right since 2005.
“ERA has protected the cultural heritage at Jabiluka for almost two decades. The agreement and veto right only remain in place if the lease is renewed,” ERA chief executive Brad Welsh said.
Kingsland Minerals sitting on a vast graphite deposit
Kingsland Minerals’ (KNG) Leliyn project in the NT has been confirmed as Australia’s largest inferred contained graphite deposit, amounting to 14.2 Mt. The completion of 51 RC and 11 diamond core drill holes has revealed that KNG is sitting on a vast flake graphite deposit—especially since just 4km of the identified 20km outcropping graphitic schist was part of the mineral resource estimate (MRE).
Within just a year, KNG has delineated an inferred 194.6 Mt at 7.3 per cent TGC 14.2 Mt contained graphite deposit at Leliyn—one of the biggest in the world.
“We are very pleased with the maiden MRE at Leliyn. The demand for graphite will only increase, and Kingsland is very well placed to develop Leliyn into a globally significant graphite project,” KNG managing director Richard Maddocks said.
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