Uranium companies unite
Emma Haskin
ABC NT Country Hour
No matter which way you look at Uranium, it's a contentious issue and it's an issue that's hotting up in the red centre, particularly with the Angela/Pamela deposit set to be explored.
Along with the potential economic benefits that a mine could bring to the region, there's also health and water contamination concerns.
Uranium companies, who all have interests in Central Australia met whilst in Alice Springs, to discuss how they plan to inform the public about potential safety concerns.
Greg Hall is the managing director of Toro Energy who is exploring the Napperby site 200 kilometres north west of Alice Springs and he says it's important for the uranium companies to talk about the information that's going around town, in light of anti-uranium protests from environmental groups.
"One of the things we talked about was the increase in anti-nuclear sentiment amongst the anti-nuclear activists in Alice Springs. Toro Energy has been very active in 18 months now in talking to the Central Land Council, traditional owners and community groups, the Alice Springs Town Council and some businesses in what we're doing and how we're going about it.
"There seems to have been a big increase in activity because of the awarding of the Angela/Pamela deposit."
There's a public meeting run by the environment centre that's on tonight and Mr Hall is concerned at the information that will be disseminated.
"There's not a great deal of knowledge about the uranium industry within Alice Springs and that's one of the reasons why Toro has been talking within the community."
Mr Hall wants to provide the residents of Alice Springs both sides of the uranium story.
"Modern mining is now all about evaluating right from day one, what are the issues in and around a mine site, we started that work very early on...we are doing baseline environmental, baseline hydro-geological surveys. To start the process to determine the impact of the mining in the area. This is standard practice in modern mining."
Along with the potential economic benefits that a mine could bring to the region, there's also health and water contamination concerns.
Uranium companies, who all have interests in Central Australia met whilst in Alice Springs, to discuss how they plan to inform the public about potential safety concerns.
Greg Hall is the managing director of Toro Energy who is exploring the Napperby site 200 kilometres north west of Alice Springs and he says it's important for the uranium companies to talk about the information that's going around town, in light of anti-uranium protests from environmental groups.
"One of the things we talked about was the increase in anti-nuclear sentiment amongst the anti-nuclear activists in Alice Springs. Toro Energy has been very active in 18 months now in talking to the Central Land Council, traditional owners and community groups, the Alice Springs Town Council and some businesses in what we're doing and how we're going about it.
"There seems to have been a big increase in activity because of the awarding of the Angela/Pamela deposit."
There's a public meeting run by the environment centre that's on tonight and Mr Hall is concerned at the information that will be disseminated.
"There's not a great deal of knowledge about the uranium industry within Alice Springs and that's one of the reasons why Toro has been talking within the community."
Mr Hall wants to provide the residents of Alice Springs both sides of the uranium story.
"Modern mining is now all about evaluating right from day one, what are the issues in and around a mine site, we started that work very early on...we are doing baseline environmental, baseline hydro-geological surveys. To start the process to determine the impact of the mining in the area. This is standard practice in modern mining."