Following seven successive years of growth in exploration, with a peak of $228.4M in 2011, mineral exploration expenditure declined in the Northern Territory in 2013-14, with total mineral exploration expenditure of A$118.4M. Onshore petroleum activity continued to increase in 2013-14, with more than $500M in expenditure.

The top commodities by expenditure in 2013-14 was gold ($31.3M) with significant exploration for uranium, iron ore and copper as well as other commodities including rare earths, phosphate, potash, vanadium and tungsten.

At the end of 2014, there were 1047 granted exploration licences (compared with 1295 at the end of 2013) and 832 exploration applications. During 2014, 146 applications were received and 100 were granted and 305 were relinquished.

To search for recent announcement and news articles on exploration in the Territory, access NTGS’s regularly updated online Exploration News Database and to view current exploration tenements, visit the STRIKE.

• Overview of mineral and petroleum exploration and production in 2015 (13.0 mb)
• Recent Exploration Highlights Map (2.3 mb)
• Mineral Exploration Tenements and Land Status Map (1.1 mb)
• Geothermal Exploration and Development Map (891.4 kb)
• Petroleum Titles and Developments Map (1.2 mb)
• Onshore Petroleum Exploration and Production Map (1.2 mb)