Canberra is checking if six foreign investors based in China, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands obeyed orders to sell down nearly 18 per cent of WA rare earths company Northern Minerals.

The Perth-based company told the ASX on Monday the July 2 deadline had passed and it would give share registry information to Treasury’s foreign investment division so officials could decide if the forced sale had been completed.

It is the latest move by Canberra to police China-linked influence over the strategically sensitive Browns Range project in the Kimberley, after Indian Ocean International Shipping and Service Company and its sole director Jing Tian were hit with $14 million in penalties for breaching earlier orders.

The orders cover 1.68 billion Northern Minerals shares, or about 17.58 per cent of the company’s register.

Northern did not say if the shares had changed hands, who bought them, or if Treasury had decided the orders were obeyed.

Treasury is not just checking if the shares were sold. It must also decide if they went to genuinely independent buyers, rather than related parties.

Northern Minerals executive chair Adam Handley welcomed the intervention in May, saying the Treasurer’s orders were “an important step” towards aligning the company’s register with Australia’s national security interests.

He said maintaining a “transparent share register” was critical to the company’s ability to secure funding and advance Browns Range.

“Northern Minerals is working hard to advance our 100 per cent-owned Browns Range Heavy Rare Earths Project, which is a globally significant opportunity to underpin a new, secure and reliable allied supply chain,” Mr Handley said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers defended the intervention in May, saying the Government had spent “a lot of time” weighing advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board, Treasury and legal advisers.

“A series of red flags came up,” Dr Chalmers said. “We’d rather not have to, but when we do, we will do it decisively.”

Asked if the concern was China, Dr Chalmers said it was “around the nature of the investment”.

The Albanese Government has now stepped into Northern’s register four times in just over three years over national security concerns.

The ownership fight has already pushed out Northern’s long-delayed annual general meeting.

On June 17, the company said the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had given it more time to hold its 2025 AGM because the forced sales needed to be completed and checked first.

Northern must now hold the meeting by September 30, or within 42 business days of Treasury formally telling the company the disposal orders have been fully obeyed, whichever comes first.

Browns Range contains dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, heavy rare earths used in permanent magnets for defence, clean energy and medical technologies.

The miner is aiming to decide by September 30 if it has the funding and approvals needed to push Browns Range into development, with first production planned for late 2028 or early 2029.

It has a conditional deal to send about 65 per cent of planned Browns Range concentrate to Iluka’s Eneabba refinery, backed by a $1.65 billion Federal loan to build rare earths processing capacity outside China.