Wednesday, 17 January, 2007

ABC NT Local News

The mining company Energy Metals says it has early evidence that its uranium resource near Yuendumu in central Australia is bigger and of a higher quality than first thought.

Energy Metals says it is hoping to conduct a feasibility study next year on the prospect of establishing a mine at the site, which is 350 kilometres from Alice Springs.

Work at the Bigrlyi project, which is 350 kilometres north west of Alice Springs, is in its initial stages.

The company says recent drilling suggests there is high grade uranium at the site equivalent to the quality of the deposit mined at the Ranger mine in the north of the state.

The company also estimates the quality of the deposit is higher than at South Australia's Olympic Dam and Beverley mines, but the volume of uranium is much smaller.

Energy Metals executive director Lindsay Dudfield says the company hopes to begin construction of a mine in two years if the positive results are confirmed.

"If everything went to plan and we got positive results from the forthcoming field program and a feasibility study was positive, we could be looking at starting construction [in] 2009 at the earliest."

Mr Dudfield says although output may be small, the creation of a mine would boost employment in the region.

"What we're talking here is small tonnages of higher grade. So several hundred employees, a lot of contract labour," he said.

"But obviously a lot of money would be generated through the local community. We would be looking to employ as many locals as possible."