Regardless of Tungsten and Rare Earth, Australia's NT Sinks Seabed Mining Plans

Australia's Northern Territory (NT) Government owns rare earth and tungsten mine projects, announced on February 5 that it plans to prohibit seabed mining in the area to obtain rare earth and other minerals.

Australia's Northern Territory government, which has rare earth and tungsten mining projects, will suspend mining activities in marine and coastal waters. The territory has kept a moratorium on seabed mining activities since 2012, which was due to expire on March 5, but will now be extended for up to another 6 months. There are very few seabed mining projects globally and the mining activity has never been undertaken in the Northern Territory.

"Our natural environment is one of our best assets and it's a large part of what makes living in the territory so special. It is important that our unique environment and the jobs that rely on it are protected and this is exactly what this government is doing," Lawler said. "The seas surrounding the Northern Territory are home to coral reefs, seagrass meadows and mangroves, all crucially important for supporting marine wildlife like turtles, whales and dolphins," Greenpeace Australia Pacific spokesperson Nelli Stevenson said.

The Northern Territory Government said that due to the limited activity, there was not enough information available to identify the best practice environmental management and rehabilitation for the marine environment.

The Northern Territory, which has rare earth and tungsten mining projects, has never conducted seabed mining. Lawler pointed out that there are few seabed mining projects globally, and therefore, limited information is used to determine and inform the best practices of the marine environment for environmental management and restoration.

The ban is implemented to enable the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority and the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority to assess the impact of seabed mining on the Northern Territory environment, including the social and cultural environment, and the actual status of indigenous heritage. Or potential impact, provide advice to the government. The Environmental Protection Agency of the Northern Territory has conducted an extensive public consultation on its draft proposal and has provided the results of the consultation to the regional government.

The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions. It shares borders with WA to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago.

NT has world-class resource wealth, including some of Australia's largest deposits of uranium, zinc-lead, bauxite, gold, phosphate and manganese, as well as newly built copper and iron ore (1028, 9.50, 0.93%). Many bulk commodity projects such as stone, rare earths, tungsten ore, ore and potassium carbonate, as well as conventional and unconventional oil and gas projects. Northern Territory miners had intended to target aggregate sands, minerals sands containing gold, diamonds and rare earth minerals, offshore salt deposits, manganese, phosphate and bauxite through seabed mining.

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