The shortages caused by attacks on Iran by Israel and the US have massively increased interest in the Territory’s huge gas reserves as well as several minerals.
This is clearly the main talking point at the Annual Geoscience Exploration Seminar (AGES) this week in Alice Springs which may become the base for a major mine
Further north, at the Beetaloo Sub-basin, if only 15 per cent of the estimated gas-in-place was recovered “which is a reasonable estimate,” that would still be enough to provide Australia’s natural gas requirements for 70 to 100 years, according to Ian Scrimgeour.
The Senior Executive Director, NT Geological Survey, says: “Already from limited drilling the Beetaloo nearly as much contingent resources as Inpex’s Ichthys field. The potential is in orders of magnitude greater than Inpex’s field.
“We’ve recently seen Inpex farming into Beetaloo,” suggesting the Japanese company may be seeking future gas offtake for expansion of their LNG facilities.
The field is about half way between Alice Springs and Darwin.
Gas has a special role in the current crisis: “Australia’s ability to deliver gas to our partners in Asia is very important to us securing fuel supplies from Asia,” says Dr Scrimgeour.
“Down the track there may also be interest in the potential for production of condensate and other liquids out of Beetaloo, [enhancing] liquid security for Australia.
“Diesel fuel prices will impact on the cost of development. It’s yet to be seen how that plays out.”
The leaseholders have gas supply agreements with the NT Government, says Dr Scrimgeour.
“Initially the gas is going to be delivered to the Territory government for our domestic gas supply, then to the east coast and potentially overseas.
“All the gas delivered under the NT Government’s gas supply agreements is going to stay domestically. There is talk federally of options for domestic gas reservation policies.”
There is also potential for processing of gas to liquid fuels: “No firm plans yet. It could occur in the future.”
As fuel shortages are driving people to EVs there is a real chance for other commodities in the NT to boom – lithium, rare earths, graphite, copper.
“All these are minerals that are needed for EVs. We are seeing a real rise in demand for them,” says Dr Scrimgeour.
He says the developing Nolans rare earths project at Aileron, 135 km north of Alice Springs, has accumulated debt funding of US$1.05 billion, including more than $100m equity investment from Export Australia and $475m from the market, to which now €50m has been added by the German Government.
“This is bringing the mine close to go to final investment decision. They are pretty much there with their funding.
“They need to lock in another offtake agreement. They have 66 per cent of offtake locked in at this point.”
Arafura Rare Earths wants to get to 80 per cent, he understands.
It will be processing on site to produce an NdPr oxide product, which are rare earths used in permanent magnets.
“That’s quite advanced processing,” says Dr Scrimgeour.
“They are investigating, as a further stage, to bring in third party ores and process them as well, to become a regional processing hub at Aileron.”
The project is expected to employ 680 staff during construction and 360 during production.
“They are looking at the option of a drive-in, drive-out workforce bussed from Alice Springs for a stint of days.
“They will have a camp on site but they will have as much as possible of their workforce based in Alice Springs, trying to get away [as much as possible] from the full fly-in, fly-out component.”
Dr Scrimgeour says AGES aims to promote the Territory’s resource potential for minerals and gas, and “all the work the government is doing through the Geological Survey to enhance the potential, and also for industry to present their highlights”.
This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 15 April 2026.
