Uranium conference draws heavies
Monday, 23 July, 2007
by Nigel Wilson
The Australian
More than 400 delegates are expected to attend the conference to discuss the mining and development of uranium projects in Australia and overseas.
But the public focus will be on the politicians with federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane, Opposition resources spokesman Chris Evans and federal Greens leader Bob Brown deeming the event important enough to make the trip across the Nullarbor.
It's expected Mr Macfarlane's speech will focus on the huge growth in world demand for Australian uranium.
He will also talk about the responsibility Australia has, given it has the lion's share of world reserves, to provide uranium to many countries choosing to use nuclear energy.
He is expected to acknowledge that demand for uranium is high either because countries have limited energy reserves of their own or because they see nuclear energy as way to substantially cut their greenhouse gas emissions without sharply curtailing the energy needed to power their economies.
"There is strong demand for Australian uranium given the world's appetite for energy," Mr Macfarlane said yesterday.
"In 2006-07, Australia exported 9535 tonnes of uranium valued at a record $658 million, but there is plenty of opportunity to export more and for Australia to benefit from the recent rally in uranium prices.
"The fact is that if Australia does not export uranium, the world economy will not simply limit its demand for energy -- countries will instead use old energy technologies that emit high C02, or they will obtain uranium from countries with less stringent nuclear safeguards than Australia.
"While the Australian uranium industry is growing and we are seeing a record level in exploration for the mineral in Australia, there are still some areas where we could be doing better.
"No new mines have been approved since last century, and while we have seen changes in some states' policies on uranium exploration and mining, both Queensland and WA state that governments continue to approach this opportunity by refusing point blank to even consider it.
"When the federal ALP overturned its ban on no new uranium mines at its federal conference in April, it essentially has made no difference to Australia's ability to export uranium since WA and Queensland still say no. Without these states lifting their ban, the change in ALP policy, which took a quarter of a century to happen, is meaningless."
Senator Evans will argue that the debate has changed, now that federal Labor has revoked its three mines uranium policy.
It is now about nuclear power for domestic use rather than exploiting uranium for export.
Delegates are also expected to hear from Canadian analyst Jim Mustard of Haywood Securities that Australia's uranium exploration companies tend to lag their peers in nations such as Canada, the US and African countries such as Namibia and Niger -- all of which have a regulatory environment in which new mines can be developed mainly because local interest is still focused on domestic production, not on the global nuclear power market.