Northern Territory’s Mining History
Various forms of mining have taken place in Australia’s Northern Territory since its early European history. The Territory is rich in mineral resources and mining provides a greater contribution to its Gross State Product than any other industry.
Gold
The first commercial goldfield developed from 1871 in the Pine Creek district, where it has continued until the present. The second major field was at Arltunga, where gold was discovered in 1876, when gold mining was Territory’s major employer. It was also mined at nearby White Range and Winnecke’s Depot but many of the mines contained little ore and the rush to the area ended in 1903. Not until the 1930s was there a wide expansion of mining, with rushes to the Granites and Tennant Creek in 1932. The Granites field was short lived but mining resumed there in 1976. Tennant Creek, in spite of fluctuations, has remained productive.
Base metals
Commercial copper mining commenced in the Daly River area in 1883 but declined in the early twentieth century. Production in the Tennant Creek district after the Second World War was far more profitable. Silver-lead was also mined in the Pine Creek district from its discovery there in 1885. One of the world’s largest silver-lead mines opened at McArthur River in 1995. Tin was mined in the Pine Creek district from 1878 and there were smaller mines closer to Darwin. A new field at Maranboy became dominant after 1917 and remained the Territory’s principal tin producer for 36 of its 40 years of active mining.
Manganese
Manganese was mined on a large scale at Groote Eylandt from 1966. By 1992, this was the world’s third largest manganese producer.
Wolfram
Wolfram mining started at Hatches Creek in 1914 and nearby Wauchope Creek in 1917. By 1937-1938, wolfram from the two fields amounted for about half of the total value of Northern Territory mineral production but mining declined rapidly from the late 1950s.
Mica
Between the 1890s and the close of the Australia mica mining industry in 1960, almost all the nation’s mica came from the Northern Territory. Most was extracted from Harts Range.
Harts Range mica, 1947 Rum Jungle Mine, 1964 Nobles Nob Mine, 1980 McArthur River Mine, 2009
Bauxite
An open cut bauxite mine, an alumina mine and the town of Nhulunbuy were developed on the Gove Peninsula from 1965, with mining starting in 1971. Much of the ore was treated to extract alumina. Bauxite production in 2007-2008 was estimated to be worth $254 million.
Uranium
A very large and rich lode of uranium was discovered at Rum Jungle in 1949 and mining began in 1954. Up to closure in 1971, 3530t of uranium oxide were recovered at the Rum Jungle plant. Other uranium deposits were found in the South Alligator Valley in 1953 where mining ceased in 1964. Open cut mining commenced at the Ranger Mine in the Alligator Rivers district in 1981 and the operation quickly became Australia’s largest uranium project. The industry became politically contentious, with Federal Labor governments until 2007 opposing the development of new projects.
Oil and Gas
The Territory’s first commercial oil and gas field was found at Mereenie in 1963. Gas fields in the same vicinity were subsequently developed at Palm Valley and Dingo No1. From 1969 exploration drilling occurred in northern offshore areas, where most activity concentrated on the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf Basin and later the Timor Gap and Timor Sea. In 2005-2006, oil and gas contributed a third of the value of all Territory exports.
Bibliography of Northern Territory Mining History
The Bibliography of Northern Territory Mining History is taken from the Bibliography of Australian Mining History (published in 2002 and updated to 2010).