THE first shipment of Northern Territory uranium to China will be sent in the next few weeks.

The shipment will come from the Ranger mine, 260km east of Darwin.

Energy Resources Australia spokeswoman Libby Beath refused to comment on the shipment, which will be Australia's first deal to export uranium to China.

Ms Beath said any deal or its timing would be protected by "commercial in confidence".

But a spokeswoman for Rio Tinto, which controls ERA, was quoted in The Australian confirming the existence of a contract for a small one-off shipment by the end of the year.

"It is hoped this will lead to a good relationship for the future," she said.

China's demand for resources is hoped to cushion the Northern Territory from the global financial crisis threatening to drive the rest of the country into recession.

Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis last week returned from China as part of a plan to attract five major Chinese mining investments, worth more than $50 million each, by 2011.

China's plan to build 40 nuclear power plants by 2020 could offer more opportunities for the Territory.

Uranium has been regularly exported through Darwin Harbour as Yellow Cake in 44 gallon drums for the last five years.

Australia has more than 40 per cent of the world's uranium deposits - half of which are found in the Northern Territory.

ERA is the world's fourth-largest uranium producer, providing nearly 11 per cent of global primary uranium production.

The open-cut Ranger mine is Australia's largest uranium producer.

ERA's website said its uranium was used only for the generation of nuclear electricity under strict international safeguards, monitored by the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In the last financial year, uranium sales were $US349 million, an increase of 70 per cent over the previous 12 months.

ERA contributed $123 million to the Territory economy in 2007, spending $47 million in wages and salaries.