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GBE 
Hmmmmm reminds me of EME
Hmmmmm reminds me of EME
Uranium, a Raging Bull
- Thread starter Yippyio
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March 6, 2006*
US$39.50/lb
(+1.00)
Thats the current U3O8 Spot Price, 50cents short of $40 us/lb
I think U3O8 hitting $40US/lb will be as big as oil hitting $75 or gold hitting $575
US$39.50/lb
(+1.00)
Thats the current U3O8 Spot Price, 50cents short of $40 us/lb
I think U3O8 hitting $40US/lb will be as big as oil hitting $75 or gold hitting $575
Keep your eyes on BLN.
It's flagship project is in WA (Mulga), which has a ban on 'U' mining. It has Aus$3Mil coming from Lamanide, a huge Canadian Co, providing due diligence is OK ..... which it isn't, coz of the mining ban. BLN has court proceeding to confirm 50% of Mulga (it's flagship project).
The market will have heavily discouted BLN because of the cumulative effect of the three uncertainties listed.
It's the perfect time to buy!!!!!
BLN will have some of the finest acreage of any listed 'U' miner in OZ.
Court finds in BLN's favour ..... re-rated >>>>> Lamanade kicks in Aus$3Mil ..... re-rated, then a sniff of WA easing the mining ban and off she goes.
It's flagship project is in WA (Mulga), which has a ban on 'U' mining. It has Aus$3Mil coming from Lamanide, a huge Canadian Co, providing due diligence is OK ..... which it isn't, coz of the mining ban. BLN has court proceeding to confirm 50% of Mulga (it's flagship project).
The market will have heavily discouted BLN because of the cumulative effect of the three uncertainties listed.
It's the perfect time to buy!!!!!
BLN will have some of the finest acreage of any listed 'U' miner in OZ.
Court finds in BLN's favour ..... re-rated >>>>> Lamanade kicks in Aus$3Mil ..... re-rated, then a sniff of WA easing the mining ban and off she goes.
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As the bull charges caution should be exercised,
Once all the hype is gone, it will only be companies with ACTUAL Uranium Deposits or very near term upcoming drilling that will continue to excite,
So exercise caution peeps
Once all the hype is gone, it will only be companies with ACTUAL Uranium Deposits or very near term upcoming drilling that will continue to excite,
So exercise caution peeps
tech/a
No Ordinary Duck
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UXA currently belting along
For those interested in investing in a company that has a huge deposit (assuming the Supreme Court rule in favour) .....
http://www.uic.com.au/pmine.htm
Follow the links to get a feel of how big BLN ground (Mulga Rocks) is. That, incindentally is not their only iron in the fire.
Dribbs
http://www.uic.com.au/pmine.htm
Follow the links to get a feel of how big BLN ground (Mulga Rocks) is. That, incindentally is not their only iron in the fire.
Dribbs
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idribble said:
Not a chance.
Premier Carpenter has stated on the record quite a few times that WA is not about to reverse it's Uranium mining ban.
Id go for something with tenements in the NT or maybe SA.
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:iagree: What brace said, stick to companies in N.T. or S.A.
Also Brace, 'sea-change' my friend its coming :bananasmi
Uranium export 'on the cards'
Email Print Normal font Large font By Michelle Grattan, Chennai
March 10, 2006
THE chairman of the Australia India Business Council, Neville Roach, has called for Australia to export uranium to India once the US nuclear agreement with that country is in place.
Mr Roach, a member of the business party accompanying Prime Minister John Howard to India, said yesterday the agreement would put in place a new international safeguards regime.
This would in practice supercede the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and distinguish between well-behaved India and Pakistan, which has proliferated nuclear material.
Australia's policy is to sell only to signatories to the treaty. Mr Howard hinted this week an exception might be made for India, a non-signatory, but then reaffirmed that the Government had no "current intention" to change policy. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has taken a very strong line in defence of the current policy.
Also Brace, 'sea-change' my friend its coming :bananasmi
Uranium export 'on the cards'
Email Print Normal font Large font By Michelle Grattan, Chennai
March 10, 2006
THE chairman of the Australia India Business Council, Neville Roach, has called for Australia to export uranium to India once the US nuclear agreement with that country is in place.
Mr Roach, a member of the business party accompanying Prime Minister John Howard to India, said yesterday the agreement would put in place a new international safeguards regime.
This would in practice supercede the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and distinguish between well-behaved India and Pakistan, which has proliferated nuclear material.
Australia's policy is to sell only to signatories to the treaty. Mr Howard hinted this week an exception might be made for India, a non-signatory, but then reaffirmed that the Government had no "current intention" to change policy. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has taken a very strong line in defence of the current policy.
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My god there's now like 40 articles on this topic, I thought the catalyst was going to be $40 us/lb price, but it looks like it was beaten to the finish line by the US doing the U3O8 deal with India,
Here are some extracts from a few articles I have perused, enjoy!
Australia, more than any other nation, stands to reap huge profits from a global nuclear power boom, says a visiting German expert, Dr Hermann Scheer. He says Australia is under intense pressure to expand uranium mining, including within sensitive environments such as Kakadu National Park.
"The entire nuclear energy community is pushing Australia to dismantle legal barriers to uranium mining and I am sure the world is prepared to pay a lot of money for that," he says.
One part of the message was that Australia supported the deal, thought it was a great step forward and would look to its implications in the future. The other part was that Australia had no intention, right now anyway, of changing its long-standing policy of not exporting uranium to countries that are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, that is, India.
Howard made a constructive contribution in India this week. But the question remains: is Canberra really serious about India? Only by moving in areas of policy that are really important to us, such as nuclear co-operation and APEC, can we answer the question, which has enormous importance for our future, in the affirmative.
But the case points up a bizarre contradiction in Australia's uranium export policy as it still stands after John Howard's visit to India this week.
On one hand, uranium exports to China are OK, because China was one of five countries that exploded a nuclear device before 1967 and could therefore get into the nuclear non-proliferation treaty as a weapons state.
India's nuclear program lagged, so it was unable to carry out its first test until 1974. It pretended this was a "peaceful nuclear explosion" for a long time, but did not pretend it was eschewing the weapons option and stayed out of the treaty.
China did not join the treaty until 1992, and only in 1996 did it specifically stop nuclear assistance to non-treaty states. Before then it was the mother of all proliferators, helping Pakistan attain an untested nuclear capability by the late 1980s. Pakistan's "rogue" nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, later sub-proliferated bomb designs and enrichment centrifuges to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
By contrast, India has never given any hint of nuclear proliferation, and tightened controls at America's request before the first Gulf War on precursor materials for chemical weapons. It has agreed to put 14 of its 22 power reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and inspections to verify that any foreign-sourced fuel is not diverted to making weapons. These will be comparable to the agency and bilateral verification routines China will have to accept to get our uranium.
Actually, barriers to exporting uranium to India are erected by Canberra's policies, not the treaty's rules. The treaty allows export of "source or special fissionable material" to non-member states for peaceful purposes, as long as safeguards are applied. India's case - like those of Israel and Pakistan - is quite different from those of Iran, Libya and North Korea, which all pursued nuclear weapons development covertly while members of the treaty.
But neither should we act as though we trust communist China more than democratic India. Canberra's policy needs to be updated.
URANIUM re-emerged as the hot political topic during the past week with India pleading for access to Australia's bountiful reserves to feed an expanding nuclear power industry as investors swamped yet another alluring yellowcake float.
Market reaction to the Toro Energy uranium exploration float in South Australia demonstrates just how hot the uranium sector has become amid speculation about the imminent death of Labor's anachronistic "three mines" policy.
Talk of sales to China and possibly India has prompted Queensland's three Liberal senators Russell Trood, George Brandis and Brett Mason to fly to Mt Isa next week to visit Valhalla – one of the state's most promising uranium prospects held by West Australian junior Summit Resources.
Although keen to see new uranium mines developed in Australia, the Federal Government is sticking for now to a policy of not sanctioning uranium sales to countries such as India and Pakistan, which have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Canberra generated a great deal of excitement last year by taking over responsibility for approving new uranium mines in the Northern Territory, but Labor regimes running the uranium-rich states of Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia are continuing to adhere to the ALP's "three mines policy" until it is changed.
The push is on in Queensland though for policy reform since right-wing ALP powerbroker and Australian Workers Union secretary Bill Ludwig took a lead role in urging the State Government to end its opposition to mining.
However, Premier Peter Beattie tried to fend off the latest mid-week plea for a rethink on uranium policy from Mount Isa MP and Speaker Tony McGrady with the almost absurd suggestion that yellowcake production in Queensland would undermine the state's $11.5 billion export coal industry.
The Queensland Resources Council quickly put paid to this argument by pointing out the majority of coal exported from Queensland was coking coal used to make steel – not thermal coal used to generate electricity.
Here are some extracts from a few articles I have perused, enjoy!
Australia, more than any other nation, stands to reap huge profits from a global nuclear power boom, says a visiting German expert, Dr Hermann Scheer. He says Australia is under intense pressure to expand uranium mining, including within sensitive environments such as Kakadu National Park.
"The entire nuclear energy community is pushing Australia to dismantle legal barriers to uranium mining and I am sure the world is prepared to pay a lot of money for that," he says.
One part of the message was that Australia supported the deal, thought it was a great step forward and would look to its implications in the future. The other part was that Australia had no intention, right now anyway, of changing its long-standing policy of not exporting uranium to countries that are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, that is, India.
Howard made a constructive contribution in India this week. But the question remains: is Canberra really serious about India? Only by moving in areas of policy that are really important to us, such as nuclear co-operation and APEC, can we answer the question, which has enormous importance for our future, in the affirmative.
But the case points up a bizarre contradiction in Australia's uranium export policy as it still stands after John Howard's visit to India this week.
On one hand, uranium exports to China are OK, because China was one of five countries that exploded a nuclear device before 1967 and could therefore get into the nuclear non-proliferation treaty as a weapons state.
India's nuclear program lagged, so it was unable to carry out its first test until 1974. It pretended this was a "peaceful nuclear explosion" for a long time, but did not pretend it was eschewing the weapons option and stayed out of the treaty.
China did not join the treaty until 1992, and only in 1996 did it specifically stop nuclear assistance to non-treaty states. Before then it was the mother of all proliferators, helping Pakistan attain an untested nuclear capability by the late 1980s. Pakistan's "rogue" nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, later sub-proliferated bomb designs and enrichment centrifuges to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
By contrast, India has never given any hint of nuclear proliferation, and tightened controls at America's request before the first Gulf War on precursor materials for chemical weapons. It has agreed to put 14 of its 22 power reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and inspections to verify that any foreign-sourced fuel is not diverted to making weapons. These will be comparable to the agency and bilateral verification routines China will have to accept to get our uranium.
Actually, barriers to exporting uranium to India are erected by Canberra's policies, not the treaty's rules. The treaty allows export of "source or special fissionable material" to non-member states for peaceful purposes, as long as safeguards are applied. India's case - like those of Israel and Pakistan - is quite different from those of Iran, Libya and North Korea, which all pursued nuclear weapons development covertly while members of the treaty.
But neither should we act as though we trust communist China more than democratic India. Canberra's policy needs to be updated.
URANIUM re-emerged as the hot political topic during the past week with India pleading for access to Australia's bountiful reserves to feed an expanding nuclear power industry as investors swamped yet another alluring yellowcake float.
Market reaction to the Toro Energy uranium exploration float in South Australia demonstrates just how hot the uranium sector has become amid speculation about the imminent death of Labor's anachronistic "three mines" policy.
Talk of sales to China and possibly India has prompted Queensland's three Liberal senators Russell Trood, George Brandis and Brett Mason to fly to Mt Isa next week to visit Valhalla – one of the state's most promising uranium prospects held by West Australian junior Summit Resources.
Although keen to see new uranium mines developed in Australia, the Federal Government is sticking for now to a policy of not sanctioning uranium sales to countries such as India and Pakistan, which have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Canberra generated a great deal of excitement last year by taking over responsibility for approving new uranium mines in the Northern Territory, but Labor regimes running the uranium-rich states of Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia are continuing to adhere to the ALP's "three mines policy" until it is changed.
The push is on in Queensland though for policy reform since right-wing ALP powerbroker and Australian Workers Union secretary Bill Ludwig took a lead role in urging the State Government to end its opposition to mining.
However, Premier Peter Beattie tried to fend off the latest mid-week plea for a rethink on uranium policy from Mount Isa MP and Speaker Tony McGrady with the almost absurd suggestion that yellowcake production in Queensland would undermine the state's $11.5 billion export coal industry.
The Queensland Resources Council quickly put paid to this argument by pointing out the majority of coal exported from Queensland was coking coal used to make steel – not thermal coal used to generate electricity.
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And so the press coverage continues, with U3O8 prices poised to break the $40 US/LB level this week, and forecast to reach $50 US/lb within 6 months the fundamentals are very very strong.
Australia `Confident' of China Uranium Export Pact (Update1)
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Australia, which has the world's largest known uranium reserves, is likely soon to sign an agreement with China allowing the sale of the fuel for use in power generation in Asia's biggest energy user.
``Both sides are satisfied with the results of the negotiations and are confident of a successful outcome in the near future,'' a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said today in Canberra. Talks began in January on safeguards to ensure any Australian uranium supplied to China is only used for peaceful purposes.
Greens leader Bob Brown claims the Federal Government is poised to export uranium to India and China, a stance he says is backed by sections of the Labor Party, including South Australian Premier Mike Rann.
Australia `Confident' of China Uranium Export Pact (Update1)
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Australia, which has the world's largest known uranium reserves, is likely soon to sign an agreement with China allowing the sale of the fuel for use in power generation in Asia's biggest energy user.
``Both sides are satisfied with the results of the negotiations and are confident of a successful outcome in the near future,'' a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said today in Canberra. Talks began in January on safeguards to ensure any Australian uranium supplied to China is only used for peaceful purposes.
Greens leader Bob Brown claims the Federal Government is poised to export uranium to India and China, a stance he says is backed by sections of the Labor Party, including South Australian Premier Mike Rann.
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Sound the trumpets!!!!!!
Uranium is @ $40 us/lb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It should hit $50 us/lb within the next 6 months
March 13, 2006*
US$40.00/lb
(+0.50)
Uranium is @ $40 us/lb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It should hit $50 us/lb within the next 6 months
March 13, 2006*
US$40.00/lb
(+0.50)
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Uranium deal with China 'close'
Mar 15 13:57
AAP
The Australian government says it is close to signing an agreement to supply uranium to China.
Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said on Wednesday Australia could soon export uranium to China.
"We are close to concluding agreements with China, I suspect," Mr Macfarlane told reporters in Perth.
Officials from China and Australia met two weeks ago in Beijing for the latest round of negotiations to set in place a framework to allow Australia to sell some of its vast stores of uranium to the Chinese.
Mr Macfarlane said Western Australia stood to lose billions of dollars if it did not change its anti-uranium stance.
"The opportunity is there for WA to share in the expansion of uranium mining industry," he said.
"It would be reasonable also to expect a diversity of supply would be sought and the Chinese buyers would be looking at an opportunity to source uranium out of Western Australia."
The WA government has decided not to reconsider uranium mining in the state for at least the next three years.
"I think that is a classic missed opportunity," Mr Macfarlane said.
Mar 15 13:57
AAP
The Australian government says it is close to signing an agreement to supply uranium to China.
Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said on Wednesday Australia could soon export uranium to China.
"We are close to concluding agreements with China, I suspect," Mr Macfarlane told reporters in Perth.
Officials from China and Australia met two weeks ago in Beijing for the latest round of negotiations to set in place a framework to allow Australia to sell some of its vast stores of uranium to the Chinese.
Mr Macfarlane said Western Australia stood to lose billions of dollars if it did not change its anti-uranium stance.
"The opportunity is there for WA to share in the expansion of uranium mining industry," he said.
"It would be reasonable also to expect a diversity of supply would be sought and the Chinese buyers would be looking at an opportunity to source uranium out of Western Australia."
The WA government has decided not to reconsider uranium mining in the state for at least the next three years.
"I think that is a classic missed opportunity," Mr Macfarlane said.
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Hmm can't find the thread I started, must have been deleted for some reason
I was curios if I was the only one who forgot about South Australian Elections
As liberal victory would do wonders for uranium players like MTN, UXA and Toro
But it looks like a pretty secure labour victory
Still I am suprised that other Uranium watchers didn't bring it up, I hadn't heard anything about it until last night, then again I am in Melbourne and all this state cares about right now is the Games!
I was curios if I was the only one who forgot about South Australian Elections
As liberal victory would do wonders for uranium players like MTN, UXA and Toro
But it looks like a pretty secure labour victory
Still I am suprised that other Uranium watchers didn't bring it up, I hadn't heard anything about it until last night, then again I am in Melbourne and all this state cares about right now is the Games!
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/uranium-to-china-its-a-deal/2006/03/18/1142582576828.html
Uranium to China: it's a deal
An AGREEMENT clearing the way for massive uranium sales to China is almost certain to be signed when Premier Wen Jiabao visits Australia early next month.
The deal would give Australia the ability to monitor the use of its uranium in China to ensure that it is only used for peaceful purposes.
It is expected to see a significant increase in the amount of uranium mined in Australia. Sales to China could quickly double Australia's annual income from uranium to $1 billion.
The Sunday Age has been told that formal negotiations, which began last August, have proceeded much more rapidly than expected. Those talks, led by officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, were expected to take up to two years.
"It's now 90 per cent certain that the agreement will be signed during next month's visit," an official said yesterday. "That's certainly the target.
"That doesn't mean we are going to be digging up uranium and shipping it off to China the next day," the official said.
An agreement would simply clear the way for the companies owning Australia's uranium mines to begin negotiations with China over prices.
The official said it would be up to the Australian companies to make the investment needed to mine enough uranium to meet Chinese demand.
China is expected to quadruple its use of uranium over the next 15 years to meet a massive increase in the demand for power.
The companies' negotiations may be complicated by the row over an apparent Chinese attempt to impose a price cap on iron ore. China's Commerce Ministry has reportedly issued a notice on the internet accusing the biggest iron ore producers of using their monopoly to make unreasonably high profits and violating the rules of fair trade. Australia responded that any move to impose a price cap would breach World Trade Organisation rules.
China first asked officially to buy Australian uranium in August 2004. Then in June 2005, it emerged that Australia was negotiating conditions for the export of uranium to China. These included a range of nuclear safeguards that could lead to a lucrative export trade.
When Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was asked yesterday for details of the coming agreement with China, he said the Premier's visit was still two weeks away. "It would be terrible to spoil the story of Premier Wen's visit today," he said.
Greens leader Bob Brown condemned the potential deal as outrageous and said it was "farcical to say that Australian uranium would not end up in Chinese nuclear weapons".
"This is selling uranium into a nuclear power which has rockets which can reach Sydney and Melbourne and during the last year has threatened Taiwan with nuclear weapons," Senator Brown said. "Moreover, it has sent nuclear technology to Pakistan and via there to Iran and Libya, all this in an age of handbag-sized nuclear weapons and global terrorism."
with Jason Koutsoukis
Uranium to China: it's a deal
An AGREEMENT clearing the way for massive uranium sales to China is almost certain to be signed when Premier Wen Jiabao visits Australia early next month.
The deal would give Australia the ability to monitor the use of its uranium in China to ensure that it is only used for peaceful purposes.
It is expected to see a significant increase in the amount of uranium mined in Australia. Sales to China could quickly double Australia's annual income from uranium to $1 billion.
The Sunday Age has been told that formal negotiations, which began last August, have proceeded much more rapidly than expected. Those talks, led by officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, were expected to take up to two years.
"It's now 90 per cent certain that the agreement will be signed during next month's visit," an official said yesterday. "That's certainly the target.
"That doesn't mean we are going to be digging up uranium and shipping it off to China the next day," the official said.
An agreement would simply clear the way for the companies owning Australia's uranium mines to begin negotiations with China over prices.
The official said it would be up to the Australian companies to make the investment needed to mine enough uranium to meet Chinese demand.
China is expected to quadruple its use of uranium over the next 15 years to meet a massive increase in the demand for power.
The companies' negotiations may be complicated by the row over an apparent Chinese attempt to impose a price cap on iron ore. China's Commerce Ministry has reportedly issued a notice on the internet accusing the biggest iron ore producers of using their monopoly to make unreasonably high profits and violating the rules of fair trade. Australia responded that any move to impose a price cap would breach World Trade Organisation rules.
China first asked officially to buy Australian uranium in August 2004. Then in June 2005, it emerged that Australia was negotiating conditions for the export of uranium to China. These included a range of nuclear safeguards that could lead to a lucrative export trade.
When Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was asked yesterday for details of the coming agreement with China, he said the Premier's visit was still two weeks away. "It would be terrible to spoil the story of Premier Wen's visit today," he said.
Greens leader Bob Brown condemned the potential deal as outrageous and said it was "farcical to say that Australian uranium would not end up in Chinese nuclear weapons".
"This is selling uranium into a nuclear power which has rockets which can reach Sydney and Melbourne and during the last year has threatened Taiwan with nuclear weapons," Senator Brown said. "Moreover, it has sent nuclear technology to Pakistan and via there to Iran and Libya, all this in an age of handbag-sized nuclear weapons and global terrorism."
with Jason Koutsoukis
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Labour won in S.A. :swear: :swear: :swear: :swear:
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Up another notch!!!!!!!!!!
March 20, 2006*
US$40.50/lb
(+0.50)
March 20, 2006*
US$40.50/lb
(+0.50)
Let them eat cake
The possibility of China taking Australian yellowcake has people in Roxby Downs talking about the "big expansion". Much rests on Olympic Dam, writes Barry FitzGerald.
When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao touches down in Perth next Saturday at the start of his whirlwind tour of Australia, he will have the biggest fan of the local resources industry at his side, federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane.
Macfarlane's mission will be to brief Wen on the resources industry's ability to keep China's booming "Hungry Dragon" economy fully fed with a broad suite of commodities in a cost-effective, timely and environmentally safe manner.
That will be the sales pitch, anyway. The reality is that there won't be much Wen does not already know about the resources industry.
He was, after all, trained as a geologist.
Then there is China's longstanding direct interests in Pilbara iron ore mines, the North-West Shelf gas project, the Portland aluminium smelter and, more recently, the Arukun bauxite deposit in Queensland. And there is more to come, with Wen expected to give Central Party blessing to new iron ore joint ventures on the West Australian leg of his tour.
But as important as Wen's visit to WA will be in terms of cementing long-term relationships and securing future investments in the mining "boom" state, it won't be until he lands in Canberra on Monday, April 3, that the real game-changing impact of his rock-kicking tour will take hold.
That is because of the strong expectation that Wen and the Federal Government are ready to sign off on a bilateral agreement on nuclear safeguards, clearing the way for first Australian uranium sales to China. The agreement, first flagged by The Age in November 2004, has huge ramifications for the Australian industry, most notably for the new owner of the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia's outback, BHP Billiton.
Residents and would-be residents at Roxby Downs, the mining town of 4000 people nestled between red sand dunes and native pine trees about 16 kilometres south of Olympic Dam, know that all too well.
Expectations of the China deal and its role in underpinning a $5-$10 billion expansion of the operation have forced rents for family homes 20 per cent higher to an average of $420 a week in the past six months, and real estate agents report lists of 80-100 families waiting on accommodation.
For those locals not receiving company rent subsidies or who do not own their own home, Roxby Downs is an expensive place to live, and getting more so. But the promise of plenty of work and above-average pay for all when the "big expansion" kicks off means that retreating 570 kilometres south to the comparatively cheaper lifestyle on offer in Adelaide is not necessarily the best option.
The "big expansion" is local shorthand for the massive expansion plans for Olympic Dam. And because of the looming safeguards agreement that Premier Wen is here to sign, the expansion plans have become inextricably linked to China and its high-growth plans for its nuclear power industry.
While the agreement on nuclear safeguards - which seek to restrict uranium to peaceful uses through a monitoring and inspection regime - is now considered certain, the bells and whistles that could come with the deal remain open to speculation.
Some analysts are convinced that to cement the safeguards agreement, there will also be an announcement of an intention for China to buy the additional output from Olympic Dam that would come with its expansion, with first material available in about 2010-2011.
That could represent more than 10,000 tonnes a year of uranium, worth upwards of $A1.4 billion at current bumper spot prices for uranium of $US40.50 a pound.
There has also been speculation that China could become a direct partner in Olympic Dam, at least in the "expansion" component of the project in much the way Rio Tinto did with Freeport at the giant Grasberg mine in West Papua.
Before BHP's takeover of WMC last year, there was a plan to cut a deal with the French nuclear giant Cogema on future uranium sales that would have helped WMC finance Olympic Dam's expansion.
BHP does not need any financial support in the Olympic Dam expansion but, as China showed when it signed up for $25 billion of liquefied natural gas imports from the Woodside-managed North-West Shelf project, it prefers to do so holding a direct (5.3 per cent) stake in the underlying gas resource.
Olympic Dam is not the only source of Australian uranium, but it is uniquely placed to meet China's demands. The Rio Tinto-controlled Ranger mine in the Northern Territory has a limited life and the company will not develop the big Jabiluka deposit until it has the full agreement of the traditional owners of the land.
Australia's only other uranium mine, Heathgate's Beverley mine in South Australia, is a small operation, with its production capacity not warranting the effort that Australia and China have gone to, to put the safeguard agreement in place.
And with the known uranium deposits of Western Australia and Queensland locked up by entrenched Labor governments with no intention at present of allowing new mine developments, Olympic Dam again comes to the fore.
Apart from being the world's fourth-biggest copper and gold resource, Olympic Dam is also the world's biggest uranium resource. The resource estimate stands at 1.5 million tonnes of uranium oxide. But that is just a starting point. A frenetic exploration/infill drilling program, firstly by WMC and since then by BHP, is expected to lead to a massive upgrade.
More importantly will be the increase in the more certain proved and probable mining reserve, the base from which BHP will plan Olympic Dam's expansion. While WMC was looking at spending $5 billion-plus to expand Olympic Dam's annual output from 225,000 tonnes of copper and 5000 tonnes of uranium to 500,000 tonnes of copper and 15,000 tonnes of uranium, mining analysts now openly speculate that BHP has in mind 1 million tonnes of copper and 30,000 tonnes of uranium.
"We would expect Olympic Dam to be initially ramped up to 650,000 tonnes a year (copper) with a final design conceptually at 1 million tonnes a year," Goldman Sachs JBWere told clients earlier this month. "This could place the mine at a similar size to (BHP's) Escondida (in Chile and the world's biggest) by the middle of next decade," it said.
It is the nature of Olympic Dam - named after a water hole sunk on the Roxby Downs pastoral lease at the time of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics - that along with increased copper comes increased uranium output. But unlike copper, which is easily sold, uranium must find a government-approved home. To be government-approved, there must be a bilateral agreement on nuclear safeguards, as Australia already has with 25 countries and is now about to have with China.
China has earmarked nuclear power as a key growth area as it sets about meeting a surge in demand from a mix of low-greenhouse-impact energy sources, including LNG from the North-West Shelf project.
The matching of BHP's need to find a home for additional uranium production to China's need to source overseas supplies of the radioactive material looks to be a neat solution.
And because of surging copper and uranium prices, the solution could be a highly profitable one for BHP and Australia.
But the full exploitation of the massive Olympic Dam ore body is not without its challenges. Sourcing the huge water resources needed to support an expanded operation is one of the key challenges. Keeping and expanding a skilled workforce at Roxby Downs without them going broke to pay the rent is another.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/busin...1143083984998.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
The possibility of China taking Australian yellowcake has people in Roxby Downs talking about the "big expansion". Much rests on Olympic Dam, writes Barry FitzGerald.
When Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao touches down in Perth next Saturday at the start of his whirlwind tour of Australia, he will have the biggest fan of the local resources industry at his side, federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane.
Macfarlane's mission will be to brief Wen on the resources industry's ability to keep China's booming "Hungry Dragon" economy fully fed with a broad suite of commodities in a cost-effective, timely and environmentally safe manner.
That will be the sales pitch, anyway. The reality is that there won't be much Wen does not already know about the resources industry.
He was, after all, trained as a geologist.
Then there is China's longstanding direct interests in Pilbara iron ore mines, the North-West Shelf gas project, the Portland aluminium smelter and, more recently, the Arukun bauxite deposit in Queensland. And there is more to come, with Wen expected to give Central Party blessing to new iron ore joint ventures on the West Australian leg of his tour.
But as important as Wen's visit to WA will be in terms of cementing long-term relationships and securing future investments in the mining "boom" state, it won't be until he lands in Canberra on Monday, April 3, that the real game-changing impact of his rock-kicking tour will take hold.
That is because of the strong expectation that Wen and the Federal Government are ready to sign off on a bilateral agreement on nuclear safeguards, clearing the way for first Australian uranium sales to China. The agreement, first flagged by The Age in November 2004, has huge ramifications for the Australian industry, most notably for the new owner of the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia's outback, BHP Billiton.
Residents and would-be residents at Roxby Downs, the mining town of 4000 people nestled between red sand dunes and native pine trees about 16 kilometres south of Olympic Dam, know that all too well.
Expectations of the China deal and its role in underpinning a $5-$10 billion expansion of the operation have forced rents for family homes 20 per cent higher to an average of $420 a week in the past six months, and real estate agents report lists of 80-100 families waiting on accommodation.
For those locals not receiving company rent subsidies or who do not own their own home, Roxby Downs is an expensive place to live, and getting more so. But the promise of plenty of work and above-average pay for all when the "big expansion" kicks off means that retreating 570 kilometres south to the comparatively cheaper lifestyle on offer in Adelaide is not necessarily the best option.
The "big expansion" is local shorthand for the massive expansion plans for Olympic Dam. And because of the looming safeguards agreement that Premier Wen is here to sign, the expansion plans have become inextricably linked to China and its high-growth plans for its nuclear power industry.
While the agreement on nuclear safeguards - which seek to restrict uranium to peaceful uses through a monitoring and inspection regime - is now considered certain, the bells and whistles that could come with the deal remain open to speculation.
Some analysts are convinced that to cement the safeguards agreement, there will also be an announcement of an intention for China to buy the additional output from Olympic Dam that would come with its expansion, with first material available in about 2010-2011.
That could represent more than 10,000 tonnes a year of uranium, worth upwards of $A1.4 billion at current bumper spot prices for uranium of $US40.50 a pound.
There has also been speculation that China could become a direct partner in Olympic Dam, at least in the "expansion" component of the project in much the way Rio Tinto did with Freeport at the giant Grasberg mine in West Papua.
Before BHP's takeover of WMC last year, there was a plan to cut a deal with the French nuclear giant Cogema on future uranium sales that would have helped WMC finance Olympic Dam's expansion.
BHP does not need any financial support in the Olympic Dam expansion but, as China showed when it signed up for $25 billion of liquefied natural gas imports from the Woodside-managed North-West Shelf project, it prefers to do so holding a direct (5.3 per cent) stake in the underlying gas resource.
Olympic Dam is not the only source of Australian uranium, but it is uniquely placed to meet China's demands. The Rio Tinto-controlled Ranger mine in the Northern Territory has a limited life and the company will not develop the big Jabiluka deposit until it has the full agreement of the traditional owners of the land.
Australia's only other uranium mine, Heathgate's Beverley mine in South Australia, is a small operation, with its production capacity not warranting the effort that Australia and China have gone to, to put the safeguard agreement in place.
And with the known uranium deposits of Western Australia and Queensland locked up by entrenched Labor governments with no intention at present of allowing new mine developments, Olympic Dam again comes to the fore.
Apart from being the world's fourth-biggest copper and gold resource, Olympic Dam is also the world's biggest uranium resource. The resource estimate stands at 1.5 million tonnes of uranium oxide. But that is just a starting point. A frenetic exploration/infill drilling program, firstly by WMC and since then by BHP, is expected to lead to a massive upgrade.
More importantly will be the increase in the more certain proved and probable mining reserve, the base from which BHP will plan Olympic Dam's expansion. While WMC was looking at spending $5 billion-plus to expand Olympic Dam's annual output from 225,000 tonnes of copper and 5000 tonnes of uranium to 500,000 tonnes of copper and 15,000 tonnes of uranium, mining analysts now openly speculate that BHP has in mind 1 million tonnes of copper and 30,000 tonnes of uranium.
"We would expect Olympic Dam to be initially ramped up to 650,000 tonnes a year (copper) with a final design conceptually at 1 million tonnes a year," Goldman Sachs JBWere told clients earlier this month. "This could place the mine at a similar size to (BHP's) Escondida (in Chile and the world's biggest) by the middle of next decade," it said.
It is the nature of Olympic Dam - named after a water hole sunk on the Roxby Downs pastoral lease at the time of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics - that along with increased copper comes increased uranium output. But unlike copper, which is easily sold, uranium must find a government-approved home. To be government-approved, there must be a bilateral agreement on nuclear safeguards, as Australia already has with 25 countries and is now about to have with China.
China has earmarked nuclear power as a key growth area as it sets about meeting a surge in demand from a mix of low-greenhouse-impact energy sources, including LNG from the North-West Shelf project.
The matching of BHP's need to find a home for additional uranium production to China's need to source overseas supplies of the radioactive material looks to be a neat solution.
And because of surging copper and uranium prices, the solution could be a highly profitable one for BHP and Australia.
But the full exploitation of the massive Olympic Dam ore body is not without its challenges. Sourcing the huge water resources needed to support an expanded operation is one of the key challenges. Keeping and expanding a skilled workforce at Roxby Downs without them going broke to pay the rent is another.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/busin...1143083984998.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
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nizar said:
Would that be Yellow Cake?
:
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Talk about change,
Loook whats on the Nine MSN Poll today
Poll: Do you think Australia should sell uranium to China? vote now
I can't believe how far it has come in the last 6 months!
Loook whats on the Nine MSN Poll today
Poll: Do you think Australia should sell uranium to China? vote now
I can't believe how far it has come in the last 6 months!
