DOCTORS at the only Aboriginal medical service in Alice Springs have threatened to leave if the Federal Government allows a Canadian company to mine uranium near the town.

Protesters will press Northern Territory MPs to stop their support when Parliament sits in Central Australia tomorrow. They say it threatens the town's future and could set a precedent for other urban centres.

''It's a big issue … It is unprecedented to have exploration for uranium so close to an established city,'' said Isabelle Kirkbride, of Families for a Nuclear Free Future.

Opposition to the mine, 23 kilometres south of the town, at which the Canadian company Cameco has done exploratory drilling, is mounting. Sixteen doctors from the town's only Aboriginal medical service have written to the federal and Northern Territory governments warning that some will quit if the mine is given the go-ahead.

''They are thinking about the health hazards potentially in contaminated water and radon dust,'' said Koen De Decker, a spokesman for the doctors at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.

The doctors wrote to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and other relevant ministers, because he had promoted closing the gap between the health of indigenous and other Australians, Dr De Decker said.

Allowing the mine would mean the loss of crucial senior medical staff who would be difficult to replace, potentially widening the gap, he said.

But Cameco's project manager, Stephan Stander, said: ''We would urge people such as doctors, who are after all intelligent people with scientific training, not to engage in scare tactics on these issues.'' A mine would ''make a big contribution to the economic and social fabric of Alice Springs'', he said.

The Northern Territory awarded Cameco and its joint venture partner, Paladin Energy, exploration rights last year to survey the Angela deposit.

''We recently completed the first round of exploratory drilling, and we're looking at the results,'' Mr Stander said.

''Next year we will probably follow up with further drilling and a feasibility study.''

The company was in the preliminary stages of deciding whether the project, supported by a slight majority of town residents, was viable, he said.

Jane Clark, a Greens councillor on Alice Springs Town Council, said some saw uranium as an alternative energy source and jobs generator, but locals worried that a mine could pollute the water supply, destroy the growing eco-tourism industry, affect pastoral lands and lead to an exodus.

Mr Stander said environmental studies had found no connection between the Angela area and the water supply.

The territory's Resources Minister, Kon Vatskalis, said ''extensive and thorough assessment would need to be undertaken if an application was ever received … to commence a uranium mine''.