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Speaker 1: Now it looks as though there's some positive news at

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Speaker 1: the moment. The Northern Territory this week ranked as the

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Speaker 1: leading jurisdiction in the world for mineral potential. That is

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Speaker 1: according to the latest Fraser Institute annual survey of mining companies.

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Speaker 2: It is a positive step when.

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Speaker 1: You know, when you think about what this means for

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Speaker 1: the minerals industry in the Northern Territory. And joining me

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Speaker 1: in the studio to tell us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: is Catherine Tilmouth, who is indeed the executive director of

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Speaker 1: the Minerals Council here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Nice to be here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great to have you in the studio. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time. It does seem like it's a

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Speaker 1: big change for the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Are we the leading jurisdiction?

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Speaker 4: Now, I'll have to explain this one a little bit

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Speaker 4: in a little bit more detail. So what this announcement

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Speaker 4: that the Anti government has put out has said that

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Speaker 4: we are the leading jurisdiction for mineral potential. So even

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Speaker 4: in the explanation from the Fraser Institute that we are

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Speaker 4: the leading jurisdic that assuming that we would have the

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Speaker 4: best practices in place. So all of the policies, all

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Speaker 4: of the environmental regulations, all of the policies and processes,

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Speaker 4: all of the government, take away all of those hurdles

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Speaker 4: and we were just focusing on the geology.

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Speaker 3: So just the minerals, just the rocks, then we are the.

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Speaker 4: Best raw And so I've spoken to you about this before.

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Speaker 4: There is absolutely nothing wrong with the rocks. With the

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Speaker 4: potential for the mining in the territory that is the best.

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Speaker 4: Then territory has so much in abundance, so much potential.

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Speaker 4: So that is what this survey is saying. When it

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Speaker 4: comes down to just focusing on the geology, the territory

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Speaker 4: is the best. So that would just assume that no

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Speaker 4: one had anything to complain about in any of the processes.

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Speaker 3: We are the best.

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Speaker 2: Fortunately, we know that there's not a person.

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Speaker 4: We are not in a perfect world, so take away

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Speaker 4: that utopian scenario.

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Speaker 3: We have a little bit to work on.

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Speaker 4: We have improved a bit, yes, definitely, we have come up,

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Speaker 4: come up a bit, and we are now at number six,

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Speaker 4: which is a huge.

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Speaker 3: Step for the territory.

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Speaker 4: There are still things to work on, and that's what

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Speaker 4: the Mineral's Development Task Force has put forward some recommendations

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Speaker 4: to work on. So they are things like the royalties

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Speaker 4: that things like the environmental regulation processes to remove some

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Speaker 4: of the duplication. There's things like timelines that some of

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Speaker 4: these mining companies during this survey process did complain about

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Speaker 4: times to get permits approved. Things like perception about whether

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Speaker 4: or not it's still is a good place to invest

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Speaker 4: your money in.

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Speaker 3: There is still that reality.

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Speaker 4: Are you going to spend your money in the territory

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Speaker 4: when you could go across the border to Western Australia.

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Speaker 4: Those are realities. There is still that in your face reality.

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Speaker 4: Do we have as many minds as West Australia. No?

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Speaker 4: So yes, So there is the great but there's a

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Speaker 4: bit of a way to go still around.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I wondered, you know when I did read this pressure

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Speaker 1: release and thought, look, this sounds like it's really good.

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Speaker 1: We've had previous discussions with your predecessor as well, Drew Wagner,

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Speaker 1: about this and about you know, the Fraser Institutes and

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Speaker 1: your survey of mining and how we'd slipped down the

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Speaker 1: ladder really quite badly in previous years.

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Speaker 2: So there is improvement, there is confidence.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, confidence and what do you reckons change, what sort

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Speaker 1: of changed over the last year or so to give

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Speaker 1: some of those mining companies some more confidence in the

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Speaker 1: Northern territory.

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Speaker 4: Look, one thing that we stand out against the rest

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Speaker 4: of the crowd for is our pre competitive geological data.

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Speaker 4: So the things like the ANTGS, we're very open.

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Speaker 3: We've got a lot of.

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Speaker 4: Those conferences like AGES that really shares that data. And

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Speaker 4: we've had a lot of confidence put into the market

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Speaker 4: with those projects like call Lithia YEP that have shown

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Speaker 4: that we've got these discoveries and these are the new technologies,

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Speaker 4: the rareer, the critical minerals that we're going to need

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Speaker 4: for the clean energy future, and that we have them

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Speaker 4: in abundance in the territory and we have that data

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Speaker 4: that shows where they are to come to the territory.

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Speaker 4: So that sort of confidence is building and so that

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Speaker 4: is helping with the confidence in investing in the territory.

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Speaker 4: So once we get the regulatory framework in place and

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Speaker 4: we show that the government is behind us and they

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Speaker 4: want us to succeed, then I think we will start

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Speaker 4: moving up that scale a bit more.

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Speaker 1: And I know there's always environmental concerns, there's people that

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Speaker 1: always have those concerns and don't want, you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't want a situation where the Northern Territory is mine

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Speaker 1: to the point of, you know, of having a huge impact.

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Speaker 1: But the reality here is there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: different procedures and protocols that companies need to go through

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Speaker 1: before they can even get to the point of mining

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, and environmental approval in the Northern Territory is a

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Speaker 4: full life cycle approval. It is from exploration and then

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Speaker 4: once you get that approval all the way through to rehabilitation.

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Speaker 1: Now, tell me how are things going at the moment

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Speaker 1: in terms of different projects that are underway and what's

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Speaker 1: sort of on the horizon.

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Speaker 4: You've seen things like cor lithium that have come off

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Speaker 4: and have been quite successful and had a very exciting announcement.

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Speaker 4: I think it was only just last week to see

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Speaker 4: that they had their shipment and then another approval. We've

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Speaker 4: got so many things that are looking very exciting in

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Speaker 4: the Tenant Creek area. So much copper, I think it

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Speaker 4: was even the International Energy Agency said that the world

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Speaker 4: is going to need to mine as much copper in

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Speaker 4: the next twenty years as had been produced in human history. Wow,

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Speaker 4: so seven hundred million tons to meet the Paris Agreement

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Speaker 4: climate goals. I'm reading this because it's such a huge

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Speaker 4: figure to be able to reach those things. So we've

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Speaker 4: got those sort of projects happening in ten Creek, so

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Speaker 4: they're really exciting, and those sort of projects can see

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Speaker 4: such a huge change in not just the economic framework

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Speaker 4: in Tentercreek, but even help with social issues, with jobs

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Speaker 4: and investment in those sorts of areas.

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Speaker 1: It makes a huge Like, as a girl who grew

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Speaker 1: up in mounta Aser, I've seen over the years just

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Speaker 1: how big a difference it can make when a mine

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Speaker 1: really scales up and when there is work going on,

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Speaker 1: particularly with something like copper, and the way in which

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Speaker 1: the whole town changes. You know, you go from a

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Speaker 1: situation where you may not have too many people, the

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Speaker 1: population sort of declining, and then all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: things are booming. You know, you've got everybody playing football again,

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Speaker 1: You've got sports flourishing, you've got all different types of things.

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Speaker 2: Fishing opening back up.

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Speaker 4: Another teller of the post office, the jail care centers

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Speaker 4: double those sorts of things.

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Speaker 2: It does create jobs for people.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot of minds in that area, rehab

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Speaker 4: work going on, and with new technology you get them

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Speaker 4: being able to rework the tailings and those sorts of

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Speaker 4: areas and go back through them and reprocess and re

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Speaker 4: rehabilitate those areas as well. So lots of exciting things

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Speaker 4: in those sorts of areas. And then again you've got

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Speaker 4: the rarest and critical minerals, which are smaller, boutique kind

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Speaker 4: of mining projects, but they're the exciting ones that I

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Speaker 4: think that've got people's really captured their interest and imagination

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Speaker 4: with the new technologies that are around now.

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Speaker 1: Last time you and I spoke as well, there's been

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Speaker 1: some changes if I remember correctly, around the royalties, or

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Speaker 1: there was.

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Speaker 2: Going to be. There was discussion about it. Where are

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Speaker 2: things at there?

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Speaker 4: So when they released the Minerals Development Task Force report,

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Speaker 4: they have released all of those recommendations.

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Speaker 3: There is now going to be.

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Speaker 4: A consultation process for the majority of those recommendations for

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Speaker 4: twelve months and then the royalties component. They're going to

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Speaker 4: do that or sorry, for three months for the majority

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Speaker 4: and for the royalties component they will do that consultation

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Speaker 4: for twelve months. So that will be the bit that

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Speaker 4: go out to all of the traditional owners and land

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Speaker 4: councils that are going to be impacted because it makes

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Speaker 4: a difference to the money that goes from the common

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Speaker 4: Wealth Government into the Aboriginal Benefits account.

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Speaker 1: Now, Kat, my understanding is well, I mean there's been

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Speaker 1: lots of discussion about fracking over the last couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't fall so much under the Minerals Council, does it. No?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's all right. I won't ask any.

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Speaker 1: Questions about that, will leave that. I mean, I guess

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Speaker 1: there is you know, there's so much discussion, but it

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Speaker 1: does seem as though things are starting to forge your head.

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Speaker 1: I know that there is still some opposition, but it

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Speaker 1: does seem as though things are going to forge your head.

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Speaker 2: And it's been a long time coming, really, hasn't it.

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Speaker 2: With the fracking.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, with the resources, with the resources industry, I think

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Speaker 4: it all in all, I can put a big, huge

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Speaker 4: resources hat on, not just a mining horror gas hat.

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Speaker 4: Resources is such a backbone for the Northern Territory. It

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Speaker 4: is something that is going to help us as the

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Speaker 4: Northern Territory, pay the bills. It's going to help us

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Speaker 4: create jobs for everybody it's going to help us become

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Speaker 4: a bigger and stronger territory together. And we need these

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Speaker 4: sorts of things, we need to be able to stand

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Speaker 4: on our own feet. And it's something that we have

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Speaker 4: and that we own as the Northern Territorians that we

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Speaker 4: can use as an asset and it's up to us

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Speaker 4: to be able to use that asset to make our

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Speaker 4: own way forward.

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Speaker 1: Well, Catherine Tilmouth, the chief or the executive director I

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Speaker 1: should serve the Mineral S Council of Australia's Northern Territory Branch.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for coming in.

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Speaker 3: No wries