The fast disappearing ghost bat has taken up residence in the historic gold town's old mine workings.

Kirkland Lake Gold (NT Mining Operations Pty Ltd) wants to open a new underground gold mine on the existing Union Reefs mine site 20km north of the historic gold town.

Rather than the open cut mining of the past, the company wants to follow the ore body several hundred metres underground and pump water out of the way to get there.

Its workforce of the existing 130 employees and contractors is anticipated to increase to 300 during processing and mining operations.

The company plans to use the existing Union Reefs plant to process the ore from the once flooded areas over two years and maybe even beyond.

"Mining of mineralised trends below the previously mined Union North, Prospect, Lady Alice and Crosscourse Pits," the company said.

Kirkland Lake Gold is an Australian and Canadian-listed gold mining and exploration company trading on both the Australian and the Toronto Stock Exchanges.

It has already held one community meeting in Pine Creek to advise of its plans, which would see a substantial rise in the local workforce.

Gold has been mined at Pine Creek since 1878 and the town, home to just over 300 people today, has seen many booms and busts over the years.

"Underground operations will be accessed via a portal and decline from within the existing Prospect Pit."

The ore reserve is said to be 276,089 tonnes containing 39,232 ounces of gold. In today's gold prices, the haul would be worth about about $60 million.

The NT Environment Protection Authority has directed the company to prepare an environment impact statement for approval.

Already the EPA has rejected one plan for the resident ghost bats and has directed the company to try again.

The Federal Government also needs to approve the work because of the "listed threatened species and communities" in the project area.

It is the gold mining itself which has provided the perfect home for the daytime-roosting bats.

The bat has been disappearing from the wild and has chosen the old mine workings and tunnels of Pine Creek for a handy home.

The mine also plans to dewatering about 85 megalitres from the existing Prospect Pit Lake prior to operations and up to 252ML to 347ML per year during operation over the two year life of mine construction.

It is expected that water would be contained in the nearby Crosscourse Pit Lake.

Four pit lakes exist as a result of previous open cut gold mining, these are Union North, Prospect, Lady Alice and Crosscourse.

Throw in the massive Enterprise pit, now flooded to more than 100 metres deep, and Pine Creek is littered with big holes.

Previous mining has also produced adits, mine entrances, which provide specialised habitat for the cave dwelling bats.

There are plans for an underground access portal, underground mining, and processing of approximately 280,000 tonnes of ore (existing processing plant) progressively returning most waste rock to fill the underground void.

The population of ghost bats in the Territory is estimated to be 2500-3500 individuals with about 550 of them holed up in the Pine Creek mine workings, the biggest single population in the NT.

Cane toads have been blamed for a 90 per cent drop on ghost bat numbers in Kakadu since 2001.

The species was once much more widespread in the Territory, with populations in Central Australia. The species disappeared from these more arid areas of the Territory in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Ghost Bat was added to the National threatened species list as Vulnerable in May 2016.

The draft EIS was opened to public comment early in October and now awaits a final decision.

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