Proterozoic rocks crop out in northwest and far north Queensland. The Mount Isa Inlier, in the northwest, is a major producer of silver, lead, zinc and copper, and a small producer of gold. Recent exploration has led to several world-class base-metal discoveries and an upgrading of the provinces prospectivity. The other Proterozoic provinces in the Georgetown Region and the Coen Region have had a long history of diverse mining (with gold dominant), but much of the mineralisation is of Palaeozoic age with the Proterozoic rocks acting as hosts for many deposits and mineralised intrusions. Recent studies have indicated some similarities between the Etheridge Province (Georgetown Region) and the Mount Isa Inlier in terms of age, rock type and deformation history; the Etheridge Province in the Georgetown Region may have potential for deposits of base metals of both sediment-hosted and Cannington type. The Coen Region is poorly studied and underexplored.