The minerals industry welcomes the changes to the NT mining royalties system to an ad valorem scheme with the passing of the NT Minerals Royalties Bill in the NT Parliament today.
As a key recommendation of the Minerals Development Taskforce final report, to enhance the investment attractiveness of the Northern Territory, the NT Government was urged to move away from the complicated hybrid scheme that has been in place since 2018.
The MCA has been calling for this change since its introduction as it would add uncertainty and complexity and reduce mining investment in the NT.
While important, this change to the royalties system to bring it in line with other jurisdictions in Australia, is only one part of the puzzle.
The 2024-25 NT Budget highlighted that the NT economy is heavily reliant on mining and is vulnerable to the volatility of market conditions and to losses when mines aren’t producing forecast outputs.
There are a number of recommendations identified in both of the reports that have yet to be actioned. The Territory still has a large infrastructure deficit that impacts the viability of a project. There is also the need to sure up energy supply and infrastructure, develop local skills and capability to avoid a shortage of workers when new projects come online.
These things need to be done urgently.
With the mining sector delivering so much to the NT economy through royalties, it is more important than ever to start delivering new projects and new royalties streams as existing operations come to the end of their production life around the end of this decade.
