Tuesday, 20 November, 2007

by CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, BUSINESS EDITOR
The Adelaide Advertiser

URANIUM explorer Toro Energy is confident of continuing global demand for the nuclear fuel as it strives to move its projects towards production.

"There is a big market in the world for uranium,'' managing director Greg Hall told the company's annual general meeting in Adelaide today.

He said the price of uranium had peaked earlier this year at about $US140/lb because of short-term production problems and hype.

Prices had now settled back to about $US95/lb, which was still far higher than just a few years ago.

Toro was meeting after its successful takeover of Perth-based Nova Energy which has made it about the 10th largest publicly listed company in South Australia.

Four former Nova directors - Peter Lester, Jeff Sells, Erica Smyth and Tim Sugden - were elected to the board of Toro while Oxiana managing director Owen Hegarty stepped down.

Toro chairman Ian Gould said nuclear energy was increasingly being recognised as an essential part of measures to address climate change.

``In regard to access and development opportunities for uranium, we are also seeing a changing political scene,'' he said.

``Where once global policies were formed on the basis of anti-nuclear sentiment, we are seeing a shift globally to an environmental, scientific, commercial and national energy security basis for these policies.''

Toro has a number of projects in South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and in three African countries - Guinea, Morocco and Namibia.

Its most advanced project is the Wiluna deposit in WA and both Mr Hall and Mr Gould acknowledged the company had a political battle ahead to overturn the WA Government's policy banning uranium mining.

The Wiluna project is now in a pre-feasibility stage and is not restrained by the policy yet.
Mr Hall expected uranium mining would be an issue in the next WA election, due in 2009.

Toro's next most advanced project is Napperby in the NT, about 200km north-west of Alice Springs.

The NT Government supports uranium mining but any approval falls under ultimate control of the Federal Government.

Mr Hall said he does not expect either the Coalition or the Labor Party - whichever side is elected this weekend - to stop uranium mining in the NT.

At lunchtime, Toro shares were trading at 53.5c, down 7.8 per cent on a negative day on the market.