Tungsten, Molybdenum, Vanadium
Tungsten, Molybdenum
The Northern Territory has several tungsten and molybdenum fields. The largest of these in terms of historical production are the Wauchope and Hatches Creek tungsten fields located in the Davenport Province, which produced 4270t of tungsten concentrate (wolframite and scheelite). The largest known resource is at Molyhil, 250 km northeast of Alice Springs. Molyhil is hosted in a scheelite-molybdenite-magnetite skarn within the Aileron Province of the Arunta Region and has a resource of 4.71 Mt at 0.28% WO3, 0.22% MoS2 and 18.1% Fe. A number of other tungsten prospects occur within the Arunta Region.
Vanadium
The Northern Territory contains two styles of vanadium mineralisation. The largest vanadium resources are associated with mafic-hosted vanadium magnetite deposits in the Aileron Province of the Arunta Region, with significant deposits at Mount Peake and Jervois. The Mount Peake deposit is a mafic-hosted vanadium-titanium magnetite deposit, near Barrow Creek, which has a JORC Indicated and Inferred Resource estimate of 160 Mt at 0.28% V2O5, 5.3% TiO2 and 23.0% Fe. TNG Ltd completed a successful Feasibility Study on the Mount Peake project in July 2015, based on operation of 3 Mtpa expanding to 6 Mtpa over an initial 17 year mine life.
The second style of vanadium mineralisation is associated with sandstone-hosted uranium deposits, with the largest resource being at Bigrlyi, which has a resource of 7.5 Mt at 0.13% U3O8 and 0.12% V2O5.
Nickel
The Territory is largely underexplored in relation to nickel. The only defined resource is 59,550t of nickel included as part of the polymetallic Browns resource in the Rum Jungle Mineral Field in the Pine Creek Orogen. However, there is considerable potential for nickel sulfide deposits in Proterozoic basement rocks in the Northern Territory, particularly the Arunta Region where a number of nickel sulfide prospects (eg Prospect D, Baldrick) have been identified and numerous generations of mafic and ultramafic intrusions are considered fertile for nickel mineralisation and remain effectively unexplored. Feeders to the widespread flood basalts of the Kalkarindji Province in the northern half of the NT are also a prospective exploration target.