PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Northern Territory government has issued ‘not to deal’ commitments to five proponents over specific parcels of land at the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, as part of the development of a new clean energy, investment and jobs powerhouse.

Powered by renewables and lower-emissions energy, the precinct is being developed to attract industries that reflect what the Territory’s future economy will look like, including hydrogen, carbon capture, natural gas, advanced manufacturing and minerals processing.

The ‘not to deal’ commitments mean that their preferred sites in Middle Arm will be set aside for up to 12 months to provide each proponent confidence and certainty to continue developing their proposals.

Critical minerals developer Tivan is one of the proponents, proposing to produce vanadium oxides through application of innovative downstream processing technology using feedstock sourced from Tivan's Speewah and Mount Peake projects; titanium dioxide and iron oxide also produced as by-products. Tivan is also working to facilitate an industrialisation pathway for vanadium redox flow batteries.

The company told shareholders on Friday that the ‘not to deal’ commitment indicated strong support of the company’s strategic decision to relocate its TIVAN processing facility to Darwin, and furthered the sustainability credentials of the precinct.

Fellow listed Tamboran Resources is another proponent awarded the ‘do not deal’ commitment, with the company developing a proposed lower carbon emissions liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility. Gas from this export facility will play an important role in the decarbonisation plans of our neighbours and trading partners in Asia and beyond.

“Securing a strategic site at Middle Arm is a significant milestone for Tamboran and the Beetaloo basin. The enormous scale of the basin means that the low reservoir CO₂ natural gas has potential to deliver large and scalable volumes over the long term not only for Australia’s East Coast gas market, but also to international markets,” said Tamboran MD and CEO Joel Riddle.

“Providing affordable natural gas to Australia and our regional partners is anticipated to enable a reduced dependency on coal-fired power generation, while delivering a significant reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions.

ASX-listed Avenira has also been listed, with the company proposing a lithium-ferro-phosphate (LFP) cathode manufacturing facility, which will manufacture pre-cursor battery cathode materials from critical minerals, including phosphate sourced from the Wonarah project in the Northern Territory.

Avenira chairperson and CEO Brett Clark said the commitment from the Northern Territory government was an important milestone for the project, and that the company was grateful for the support.

“The development of LFP battery cathode manufacturing presents a huge opportunity for Australia and the Northern Territory to be part of the supply chain for LFP batteries. We believe Australia’s sweet spot in critical minerals is manufacturing higher value precursor components from locally mined minerals,” he added.

Meanwhile, TEH2, which is fully owned by Total Eren, is proposing to develop a green hydrogen production facility using solar energy with the capability of producing more than 80 000 t/y of renewables-based hydrogen for domestic and export potential.

Iron-ore major Fortescue’s green energy arm Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) is proposing to develop a green hydrogen hub, comprised of green hydrogen and green ammonia production and export facilities.

Collectively, these projects represent tens of billions of dollars in capital investment, with the entire Middle Arm development creating around 20 000 jobs in the Territory. 

These companies will now progress their facility designs, engineering work and prefeasibility studies and environmental approvals. They will be required to comply with all conditions set by the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process for the precinct which is currently underway.

“Middle Arm is about building the Territory’s future. This is about new sources of renewable and low-emissions energy, new investment, new industries, and most importantly, new jobs for Territorians,” said Chief Minister Natasha Fyles.

“I can give you 20 000 good reasons why this is important. This will create new, permanent, long-term jobs for the Territory, and that’s what matters to me. Clean energy jobs are the future, and that’s the future we’re building for the Territory.

“We’re absolutely committed to growing our economy while also transitioning to net zero emissions, and Middle Arm will play a huge part in that transition. This is what responsibly decarbonising and diversifying our economy looks like.

“We’ve always said that sustainability will be at the core of Middle Arm, and our focus on clean energy demonstrates that. An environmental strategic assessment is underway now for the entire precinct,” she added.

“A lot of nonsense gets spouted about Middle Arm, but today’s announcement shows the Territory, investors and the rest of the country just how committed my government is to making this a reality.”