Building the Territory’s Future at Middle Arm with cleaner energy and more jobs

9 June 2023

The Northern Territory Government has today taken the next big step towards developing the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct as 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.

To give interested companies certainty as they develop projects at Middle Arm, the Territory Government has issued ‘not to deal’ commitments to five proponents over specific parcels of land at the precinct.

These 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. The proponents are:

• TEH2, 100% owned by Total Eren – renewable energy: a global independent power producer, is proposing to develop a green hydrogen production facility using solar energy with the capability of producing more than 80,000 tonnes of renewables-based hydrogen per annum for domestic and export potential.
• Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) – renewable energy: the global green energy company, is proposing to develop a green hydrogen hub, comprised of green hydrogen and green ammonia production and export facilities.
• Tivan – critical minerals: is 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.
• Tamboran Resources Limited – natural gas: a lower CO2 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.
• Avenira – critical minerals: is 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.

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 pre-feasibility studies and environmental approvals.  They will be required to comply with all conditions set by the NT EPA as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment process for the precinct which is currently underway.

The Northern Territory is positioned to be a global leader in low-emissions energy export and critical minerals processing, taking advantage of our world-class solar and energy resources, and meeting strong international market demand to facilitate energy transition globally.

Middle Arm is attracting significant interest and will enable the development of an interconnected hydrogen industry and utilise carbon capture, to accelerate low emission industry development.

A Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage Hub as part of the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct will also be developed to mitigate emissions from existing and future natural gas processing, and will accelerate low-emission industry development, including hydrogen production.

Middle Arm is one of the most exciting and significant sustainable economic developments in the nation, and it will support thousands of jobs for Territorians.

Quotes attributed to Chief Minister Natasha Fyles:

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Northern Territory Government