Iron ore machinery

Iron ore

The Northern Territory contains a number of iron ore deposits with three periods of mining from 1967-1974, 2007-2014 and 2020-present producing more than 19 million tonnes of iron ore.
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Total production
19.45 Mt of hematite ore
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Annual production
0.56 Mt 2022-23
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Remaining JORC resources
~100 Mt of DSO iron ore (>55% Fe)
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Value of production
$6.8 million 2022-23

Prospectivity

Most iron ore production has occurred from the Frances Creek deposits near Pine Creek, which are hydrothermally-enriched hematite deposits within the Pine Creek Orogen. The largest iron ore resources and most current production is located within large oolitic hematite deposits of the Roper iron field in the McArthur Basin.

Large iron ore resources occur in the Roper iron field, hosted in the Roper Group of the McArthur Basin, south of the Roper River. The field contains more than 1 billion tonnes of moderate grade iron ore, with around 85 million tonnes of higher grade direct shipping ore (57-59% Fe) at the Roper Valley and Roper Bar deposits. Mining occurred at Roper Bar in 2013-2014, with export through Bing Bong port. Iron ore in the Roper field varies from massive to oolitic and pisolitic haematite, within the Mesoproterozoic Sherwin Ironstone Member.


Pine Creek Orogen hosts a number of high grade and low tonnage hydrothermally-enriched hematite deposits. This includes the Frances Creek iron ore deposits, which were mined from 1967-1974 and 2007-2014. In June 2021, Linecrest Pty Ltd exported a shipment of iron ore from stockpiles at Frances Creek that had been beneficiated using automated ore sorting technology.

Historical mining of gold- and copper-bearing ironstone at Tennant Creek has produced tailings containing up to 70% magnetite at a number of sites that are located near the Alice Springs-Darwin railway line and existing infrastructure.

Read the iron ore factsheet PDF (2.9 MB)

Mines

Peko Tailings - 3.75 Mt of magnetite-rich tailings

Elmore Ltd's Peko Tailings, in Tennant Creek, began operating in 2022 with proposed processing of 350,000 tonnes magnetite per annum. The first shipment of magnetite left Darwin port in October 2022.

Projects

RegionProjectResourceCompany
Warramunga Province Warrego Tailings 2.92 Mt @ 67.1% Fe (from 7.8 Mt tailings) Northern Iron Ltd
RegionProjectResourceCompany
McArthur Basin Roper Bar 279 Mt @ 41.5% Fe including 28 Mt DSO @ 59.4 % Fe Nathan River Resources Pty Ltd
Pine Creek Orogen Frances Creek JORC resource not publicly announced Linecrest Pty Ltd
RegionProjectResourceCompany
Ngalia Basin Centralian Project 14.1 Mt @ 27.1% Fe Mioxide NT Pty Ltd
Pine Creek Orogen Yarram 12.7 Mt at 55.4% Fe CuFe Ltd
RegionProjectResourceCompany
Aileron Province Mount Peake 160.4 Mt @ 0.28% V2O5, 5.3% TiO2, 23% Fe Tivan Ltd
McArthur Basin Roper Valley 529.3 Mt @ 42.9% Fe incl. 41.1 Mt @ 57.8% Fe Northern Territory Iron Ore Pty Ltd
RegionProjectResourceCompany
Pine Creek Orogen Yarram Kraken: 141 m @ 63.06% Fe  CuFe Ltd

Reports

  • NTGS Report 13 – Iron ore, manganese and bauxite deposits of the Northern Territory (2001)
  • Glass and de Chaeney, AGES 2014 Abstracts Volume – Frances Creek iron ore deposit - a unique style of iron mineralisation?

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