Wednesday, 22 November, 2006

by Jeremy Roberts
The Australian

AUSTRALIA is on the cusp of a uranium boom, with predictions that five new mines will be ready to begin operations in the next five years.

Minerals Council chief Mitch Hooke said the Switkowski report paved the way for a "new era" and called on Labor to abandon its "restrictive" no-new-mines policy.

But South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy chief executive Phil Sutherland said miners faced hurdles in overcoming the high cost of infrastructure.

"Even the bigger companies will walk away to countries where the commodity is close to the infrastructure," he said.

Mr Sutherland said federal, state and territory governments faced a "one-in-50-year opportunity" to invest in roads, rail, water and power to facilitate the uranium and minerals boom.

"I would be surprised if within five years there are not five uranium mines ready to go," Mr Sutherland said.

The Switkowski report identifies 14 regions with geology and past discoveries that mark them as highly prospective.

It says that exploration successes up to 1975 had uncovered 38 per cent of the world's known "cheap" uranium, which can be mined at less than $US40 ($52) a kilogram. But Australia has only 24 per cent of the world's known uranium that can be recovered at up to $US130/kg, and 28 per cent of the uranium at less than $US80/kg.

The report suggests that exploration would unlock further deposits of this "mid-cost" uranium.

It adopts predictions by the federal Government's geology office, Geoscience Australia, that more discoveries will be made.

"Geoscience Australia estimates that there is a significant potential for the discovery of additional deposits," the report says.

"Modern techniques mean that exploration at greater depths is becoming more comprehensive and less costly ... Australia has many areas with high or medium uranium mineralisation potential."

The bullish outlook came as private US uranium miner Heathgate, which owns the Beverley uranium mine in South Australia, signed a joint venture to explore a 5277sqkm highly prospective block on the Eyre Peninsula.

The deal was signed with Adelaide Resources. Executive chairman Keith Yates said the land was acquired 10 years ago for its gold and copper potential.

"Ten years ago you couldn't give uranium away - now we are seeing a uranium exploration boom," Mr Yates said.

"There is momentum building for a very serious era of uranium exploration and I'm sure there will be more discoveries."

The joint venture will use Heathgate's latest uranium detection technology on land that was partially explored using inaccurate methods in the early 1980s.

Mr Yates estimated that up to 50 other companies were exploring for uranium and other minerals in the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.