The Northern Territory's iron ore industry is showing signs of life for the first time in five years, with shipments of ore expected to leave the Darwin Port next month.

Key points: Linecrest expects to be exporting new iron ore from the Frances Creek mine later this year

Linecrest expects to be exporting new iron ore from the Frances Creek mine later this year The company says future mining at Frances Creek is viable, as iron ore prices hold

The company says future mining at Frances Creek is viable, as iron ore prices hold Most of the ore will sent to customers in Vietnam and South Korea

Around 300,000 tonnes of stockpiled ore will be exported from the Frances Creek mine, near Pine Creek, after the site was taken over by Linecrest Pty Ltd last year.

Company director, Rodney Illingworth, said most of the product would be sent to customers in Vietnam, with strong interest also coming from South Korea.

"At the moment it's economic to reduce the stockpiles onsite and send 40 per cent of it overseas," he said.

"We have people onsite now, and we would hope if everything goes well, we'd be doing the first small vessel by the end of May."

If all goes to plan, the company hopes to start mining new ore for export later this year.

Industry confident despite troubled past

The industry's resurrection follows a troubled history in the Top End, with a short-lived boom in 2013/14 resulting in the rapid closure of three iron ore mines, including Frances Creek, only a year later.

Plummeting ore prices were largely to blame for the collapse, with at least two of the mines becoming unviable once the price dropped below US$110 per tonne.

While iron prices are currently well below that figure, Mr Illingworth said the Frances Creek operation should be profitable for the foreseeable future.

"From all accounts, the market is going to, at this stage, stay where it is. There obviously appears to be a fair bit of stimulus coming from multiple governments around the world in respect to infrastructure spend," he said.

"So the market seems to be holding on at the moment. It's about US$82 per tonne, and with the drop in the Australian dollar, it's looking pretty good for us.

"Because we're re-processing the stockpiles, we don't have to incur mining costs, which is probably anywhere up to a third of the cost of normal production.

"Even at today's prices, if we were to transition into mining it's still viable at the present."

Linecrest hopes to export 300,000 tonnes of iron ore to customers in Vietnam and South Korea ( ABC Rural: Daniel Fitzgerald )

Jobs hope for Pine Creek

The company's plans have come as welcome news to the nearby community of Pine Creek, which only weeks ago was left reeling by the closure of another major mining operation in the region.

Around 250 workers lost their jobs when Canadian miner Kirkland Lake Gold made the shock announcement it would close its Cosmo mine and Unions Reef processing plant, only months after restarting the milling operation.

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While there are currently only a small number of staff on-site at Frances Creek, Mr Illingworth said he expected job numbers to increase, particularly if plans to restart mining by the end of this year were approved by the NT Government.

"We've employed people, I think we have another five extra now, one from Pine Creek, and the rest from Darwin," he said.

"There will be more coming from Pine Creek as we gear up, so it's good."

Darwin Port welcomes new business

The resumption of iron exports has also been welcomed by the Darwin Port, which like many businesses, is navigating through uncertain times.

General manager of port development, Peter Dummett, said it was a positive development in the current economic climate.

"In the current environment it really is great news, we haven't exported iron ore through the port in just over five years," he said.

The port was expecting the first loads of iron to arrive by truck, but over the longer-term, it would be transported by rail.

Mr Dummett said with a history of handling bulk ore, the facility was well placed to process the new shipments.

"We're absolutely ready for that sort of tonnage, previously when we were moving iron ore it was around the 1.2 million tonnes per year," he said.

"At the moment, the only bulk ores we're exporting are the OM Manganese product [from Bootu Creek]. They're back in exporting mode at the moment, and certainly working towards full production there.

"So we have plenty of capacity for bulk ore exports."

He said the port was working with a number of other companies in the resources sector and was expecting an ilmenite mine in the Roper Valley to begin exporting its product in the coming months.

"Australian Ilmenite Resources is working towards its first bulk exports, towards the end of April or early May," he said.

"We're not expecting large volumes there, but as they ramp up production it will become another bulk export."