Friday, 5 January, 2007

by GREG McLEAN
NT News

TWO prospective uranium deposits are among the almost 80 new exploration licence applications submitted to the Territory Government.

The potential uranium deposits south of Alice Springs are on some of the 18 new land areas released by the Government for exploration last month.

A number of the applications for the land areas were from Chinese companies.

Mines Minister Chris Natt said the strong interest was great news for the mining sector.

"This response clearly shows the strong interest that China has in the Territory and hopefully we'll see more Chinese companies taking up exploration rights in the Territory," Mr Natt said.

"The NT is highly prospective and under-explored.

"Several of the new land areas have previously been explored with great results, however, some of the areas have not been explored for more than 20 years, so it will be interesting to see if there are any new discoveries."

None of the exploration licences will be approved until environmental processes and issues with Aboriginal land have been dealt with, expected to take up to 18 months.

The exploration licence applications cover all minerals, but particularly concentrate on base metals.

The renewed interest in the Northern Territory's potential resources is being fuelled mainly by China's booming steel industry, which is struggling to source resources to keep up with its demand.

"We have huge deposits and our minerals are regarded as an important commodity around the world," Mr Natt said.