Resources company Tivan has announced an agreement with the NT Government to enable a mineral-processing plant in the controversial Middle Arm precinct on Darwin Harbour, a month after the new executive chairman told the extraordinary general meeting he was elected at, if there was no change there was “a 100 per cent likelihood that the company would fail”.

The company made a statement to the ASX on Tuesday announcing it had made the agreement reversing its September 30, 2021 decision to scrap its plan to construct an $800 million mineral processing facility at Middle Arm, after backlash to its 2019 proposal to the Environment Protection Authority for the facility.

The company said on February 13, it was provided a ‘do not deal’ letter by the NT Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics Department with a commitment for an initial period of six months.

On February 17, the company also went into a ASX trading halt pending an announcement.

Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler said in a statement that the Territory Government was working with Tivan to progress its project, but is yet to sign off on the final plan. Tivan would be the first secured tenant for the Middle Arm industrial precinct.

“To enable Tivan to continue initial project planning and development of a proposal for government consideration, the Northern Territory Government has agreed to hold a piece of land for the company within the Middle Arm Sustainable Development precinct,” Ms Lawler said.

The company’s previous submission had raised concerns about wastewater polluting Darwin Harbor, as well as its impact on Darwin’s air quality with the plant, with the company instead deciding in 2021 to instead build the plant at its Mount Peake vanadium, titanium and iron ore project about 230km north of Alice Springs.

In the ASX statement Tivan – formally known as TNG Limited – said a company review found the move from Darwin was “principally due to deficiencies in stakeholder and regulatory engagement, rather than tangible commercial considerations”. The board said the change was the first finding of the review, and that further “substantive announcements will follow”.

Executive chairman Grant Wilson said the company decided to go back to Middle Arm because the Darwin location provided better infrastructure, access to export markets, water, electricity and a workforce.

The company held an extraordinary general meeting in Melbourne in January, where the NT News reported, 99.3 per cent of shareholders endorsed the election of major shareholder Mr Wilson into the role and approved the name change to Tivan Limited. Mr Wilson was made the chair on November 28, after serving as a director. The next day, the company announced Paul Burton had stepped down as managing director after 16 years of service to the company, including 11 years as managing director and two years before that as CEO.

Neil Biddle had only become the non-executive chairman on September 2.

At the EGM, the paper reported Mr Wilson warned investors the company’s future and the multi-billion dollar Mount Peake mine were in the balance.

“I held a view from the outside that if really significant change didn’t happen there was a 100 per cent likelihood that the company would fail and that failure would be ignominious, an unprincipled failure,” he said.

“My view is if change hadn’t occurred and hadn’t been as direct and comprehensive as it was, the company would have failed at some point or other.

“There was certainly a scenario where you’d get through the process and turn the lights off.

“The board has been reset in the hardest way possible. This is not a cosmetic change, it’s the hardest reset possible in terms of board culture.

“Capital raising will be necessary as it is for everyone in this sector. The real trick is to make sure you’ve got management that understands capital management frameworks and it is managing capital efficiently.”

The Mount Peake project has federal and NT major project status.

With the Middle Arm move, Mr Wilson said other economic factors that led to the decision included significant key government investment, and access to large-scale renewable energy sources.

But he also accepted that Tivan had an obligation to “earn and maintain a social licence” to operate at Middle Arm.

The contentious Middle Arm precinct — which has received a $1.5 billion funding commitment from the Federal Government — has been progressed by the NT Government despite an earlier preliminary report stating that industrialising Middle Arm would cause “significant” negative impacts on threatened species and health effects for Palmerston residents, which environmental advocates labelled as “incredibly concerning”.

“This Middle Arm project is about making petrochemicals from gas fracked from the Beetaloo Basin,” NT Environment Centre director Kirsty Howey previously said.

“It will be a climate and health disaster for the Northern Territory and it’s a public subsidy to the fossil fuel industry, pure and simple. It should not be paid for by the taxpayer.”