As a mining huge prepares to open a major uranium mining site in Western Australia next year, the clamour for the state to once additional ban mining of the radioactive mineral has become louder. In fact, the Wongatha Aboriginal clan that calls this region its home does not see any insight in having uranium mining in Australia at all. "We don't need uranium mining in this country," says Wongatha leader and Pastor Geoffrey Stokes. "We have sun, we've got wind, and we have got people. Why should we pollute our country for money?" The World Nuclear Association says that Australia has the largest uranium assets in world, with 23 percent of the global total. And while it has only three uranium mines so far, it has been exporting as much as 10,000 tons of uranium oxide a year.
In the last two years, says the union, the annual value of Australia's uranium exports reached more than one billion Australian dollars. Its major clients contain the United States, Japan, and South Korea, which use the uranium to generate nuclear power. Western Australia is said to have an important share of the country's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted two years ago, when the Liberal Party was nominated into power in the state. Today, the Anti Nuclear grouping of Western Australia says, more than 100 domestic and foreign companies are exploring for uranium all over Western Australia.
One of the industry's major players, the Australian mining company BHP Billiton, already and plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium put here in 2011 in a 17 billion Australian dollar project. The mine is set to activate in 2014, with an annual yield of 3,500 tonnes of uranium ore. Kalgoorlie Boulder itself is in what is called the 'Goldfields' area of Western Australia. The town of 30,000 exists purely around the mining industry. But many residents of Kalgoorie, some 600 kilometres east of the state capital, Perth, would rather not have everything to do with uranium. Even Kade Muir, a Wongatha anthropologist is who was born in Kalgoorlie but now resides elsewhere, says, "We don't want this product disturbed from the ground. We don't want to leave a legacy for future generations of a toxic environment."
In the last two years, says the union, the annual value of Australia's uranium exports reached more than one billion Australian dollars. Its major clients contain the United States, Japan, and South Korea, which use the uranium to generate nuclear power. Western Australia is said to have an important share of the country's uranium reserves, but between 2002 and 2008, a state-wide ban on uranium mining was in force. The ban was lifted two years ago, when the Liberal Party was nominated into power in the state. Today, the Anti Nuclear grouping of Western Australia says, more than 100 domestic and foreign companies are exploring for uranium all over Western Australia.
One of the industry's major players, the Australian mining company BHP Billiton, already and plans to develop the Yeelirrie uranium put here in 2011 in a 17 billion Australian dollar project. The mine is set to activate in 2014, with an annual yield of 3,500 tonnes of uranium ore. Kalgoorlie Boulder itself is in what is called the 'Goldfields' area of Western Australia. The town of 30,000 exists purely around the mining industry. But many residents of Kalgoorie, some 600 kilometres east of the state capital, Perth, would rather not have everything to do with uranium. Even Kade Muir, a Wongatha anthropologist is who was born in Kalgoorlie but now resides elsewhere, says, "We don't want this product disturbed from the ground. We don't want to leave a legacy for future generations of a toxic environment."
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