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Historical Exploration and Mining Tenement Maps
First time users please click here!
The Northern Territory's exploration and mining titles are administered by the Titles Division of the Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources. The Division manages the Title Register and associated map reference data which displays all exploration and mining titles in the Northern Territory.
From the early 1960's to 1 January 2000 paper maps of various scales were updated daily with new applications, grants, reductions and cessations of exploration and mining titles. More than 6000 paper maps document the tenement history for the Northern Territory’s mining industry. These maps have since been scanned and the images are available for viewing by clicking on the Northern Territory map to the left.
From 1 January 2000, the Titles Information System (TIS) replaced these paper maps. TIS is the source of current exploration and mining title information. TIS can be accessed from http://dmetis.nt.gov.au/tis .
It is possible to use TIS as an unregistered user, however we encourage clients to become registered users to query TIS to its full potential. The free registration application form can be downloaded from TIS.
Before you access the map images by clicking on the above Territory map, please read the following information:
After selecting the map that you are interested in, you will be presented with a table, listing the available images for that region similar to "Example 1" below.
Example 1
Option to "View in Web Browser" (Requires Internet access to download the necessary plug-in.):
Recommended method for a quick view of the images.
This option will enable the browser of your computer to view the images, and will enable you to pan around and zoom into an area of your interest. The first time you access the images through this option, you will need to download a plug-in for your Internet Browser. When you click on the image link itself, the download will start automatically. Please follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process. This process will not have to be repeated on subsequent accesses.
To pan, hold down the left mouse button and drag the image. To zoom in, hold down both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time and move the mouse forward (as if moving the pointer on the monitor upwards). To zoom out, hold down both the left and right mouse buttons at the same time and move the mouse backwards (as if moving the pointer on the monitor downwards).
Option to "View with ER Viewer":
This option will open the image in another application called ER Viewer. You need to download ER Viewer and install it onto your computer. This process will not have to be repeated on subsequent accesses.
Map Scale
'x' indicates the scale of the map captured in the image (see above example).
Example 2
In the above examples, the image that will be loaded, will be of a map at 1:250 000 scale. The date "18/08/1982" appears on the map image meaning that this map was updated from 18 August 1982.
Date
The purpose of the Date field is to give an approximate chronological order to the maps that are available in the area of your interest. This date reflects one of the following three possibilities:
1. If the date, shown in the Date field, appears on the map image then the map was put into service on that date. This is the typical case. (See example to the left.)
2. If the date, shown in the Date field, does NOT appear on the map image then the map was updated to that date. The date was taken from the back of the original paper map which was placed there by archiving staff. This may be the case on some maps dating around the 1960-70's.
3. If the Date field is blank, then the paper map was not marked with either of the previously mentioned dates. These maps generally would be dating around the 1960-70's.