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Category: Mining Industry / Oil and Gas / Government and Politics

Northern Australia one of the last great development opportunities: Rinehart

Monday, 18 Apr 2016 09:19:34

Gina Rinehart on site at Roy Hill in Western Australia in 2015. (ABC)

Iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart says the resources sector may be at a low point, but northern Australia remains one of the world's last great development opportunities.

Key points:

  • Rinehart says Australia's raw materials critical to world growth
  • NT has more than 200 trillion cubic feet of gas
  • Deputy NT Chief Peter Styles says healthy ties with Asia key to growth

Addressing 100 business leaders at an invitation-only investment forum at the NT Parliament House in Darwin, Ms Rinehart said the NT and Northern Australia were at the forefront of development opportunities.

"This area is not only very friendly, but unique, and does indeed represent one of the world's last great development opportunities of scale and it does this all within one of the world's most highly developed countries on the very doorsteps of flourishing Asia," Mrs Rinehart said.

Mrs Rinehart, an iron ore magnate and the director of Hancock Prospecting, said the resources sector may be at a low point.

"But this cyclicity has been a constant in Australia's past," she said.

"The raw materials that Australia has in abundance will always be critical to world growth."

The spot price of iron ore has dropped since 2012 from a high of more than $US140 per tonne to $US38 in December last year, although it rebounded to $US56 per tonne last month.

Calling NT Chief Minister Adam Giles "one of the best leaders in Australia", Ms Rinehart told those at the meeting the time was now to invest in the jurisdiction.

"The Territory has more than 200 trillion cubic feet of gas," Ms Rinehart said.

"Potentially enough gas to power Australia for more than 200 years."

The bulk of Hancock Prospecting's projects are located in Western Australia and Queensland, but it also has a 50 per cent stake in an exploration joint venture to evaluate petroleum prospects in the NT's Beetaloo Basin, about 500 kilometres southeast of Darwin.

At the forum, NT Deputy Chief Minister Peter Styles said healthy trade ties with Asia were the key to the NT's strength.

"For the next century we believe that the Northern Australia, with its untapped 17 million hectares of arable soil, 40 per cent of the Australian land mass and around 60 per cent of Australia's rainfall and of course 90 per cent of Australia's gas reserves, will drive Australia's prosperity," Mr Styles said.

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