A POTENTIAL major uranium deposit has been discovered in the Territory and mining companies want to build a new port to ship it overseas.

The 18,000sq km site at the Roper Bar, 150km east of Katherine, already has significant deposits of iron ore and ilmenite.

But Australian Uranium Development director Ian Johnstone said recent scans had also revealed 68 "uranium anomalies" and more than half showed signs of being significant deposits.

"I'm not saying that we've found uranium. What we've found is uranium anomalies. But it would be very unlikely to be anything else," he said. "It's a very good cluster. So if it's there, it's big."

Mr Johnstone said the geology was similar to that of the Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu.

"Basically, anywhere you go in the Territory, you can find anomalies. But to have clusters of them like this - if they turn out good, it should be a reasonable uranium field."

Mr Johnstone said the company decided to search for uranium on the site after learning of China's plan to build 35 nuclear reactors in the next decade.

The company will do further drilling in the next dry season and Mr Johnstone hopes to use the sale of the other minerals on the site to finance the exploration.

The site also contains up to 5 billion tonnes of iron ore and 12 million tonnes of ilmenite.

And the ilmenite is of such high purity that it is the only deposit in Australia capable of being used to make titanium.

Mr Johnstone met the Shandong Dongjia Goup chairman Sun Jiacai in Jinan to discuss the sale of the iron ore. Mr Jiacai expressed his concern that the mineral needed to be transported 500km to get to the Port of Darwin.

"It doesn't matter how low the mining fees are if the transport costs are too high," he said.

"The transport cost is more than the ore is worth."

Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis also attended this meeting and drew a map for Mr Jiacai that showed a new port could be built at the Roper, 120km from the site.

Western Desert Resources are already talking about building a port at this site.

Mr Vatskalis said a commercial arrangement could be made between the mining companies to use this port.