Uranium, Cattle Grazing and Risks Unknown

A year and a half later, the former mine in Cameron, Ariz., is not fenced off to either humans or animals, and cattle keep on to roam through the site and eat grass that might be tainted with uranium and other toxic substances.“Those cattle go to auction in Sun Valley and are sold on the open market,” said Ronald Tohannie, a project manager through the Navajo advocacy group Forgotten People. “Then public eat the meat.”

The owner of Valley Livestock Auction in Sun Valley, Ariz., Derrek Wagoner, established that he buys cattle from the Navajo reservation and is aware that cattle graze on uranium mines there. He added that cattle come to him since all over the Southwest, where there are plenty of former uranium mines.There is no dispute that beef and milk since those cattle make their way into the food chain. What is not precisely known is how much radioactive material plants absorb during the soil, how much the cattle ingest by grazing on the plants and what the effect power be on humans.

Livestock grazing around the abandoned mines is ordinary throughout the Southwest, according to many environmentalists, scientists, government officials and people in the cattle business. The Colorado Plateau is mainly rich in reserves and in the former mines, which for 40 years supplied crucial materials for the nation’s cold-war nuclear weapons program.

No uranium protesters rally in Sydney

Demonstrators have rallied outside NSW Parliament House to voice their opposition to state government plans to let a uranium industry.Images of destruction from Japan's tsunami and 'No-nuclear' signs were held outside the gates as about 50 people took to Macquarie Street through the lunch hour, chanting: 'Shame Barry Shame'.

NSW Deputy Opposition Leader Linda Burney told the crowd Premier Barry O'Farrell couldn't be trusted, after he exposed plans to reverse a 25-year ban on uranium exploration in the state. 'Do not trust Barry O'Farrell,' she said. 'Just before the election he said that he was not involved in nuclear exploration and mining in NSW. 'He has now known the go-ahead for exploration.'

Earlier, Ms Burney told AAP that NSW Labor remained opposed to uranium mining and exploration, in spite of the federal Labor conference in December voting to undo its longstanding three-mine policy preventive the number of uranium mines in the country. Standing beside her, Greens upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham told demonstrators his party stood with NSW Labor in differing uranium mining.

India's uranium mines cast a health shadow

Gudiya Das whines as flies settle on her face, waiting for her mother to swat them even as she lies on a cot in Ichra, one in a cluster of villages approximately India's only functioning uranium mines.The 12-year-old, whose skeletal frame makes her look regarding half her age, was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy when she was a year old.

"Back then there were 33 disabled kids here, now there are additional than a hundred," her father, Chhatua Das told AFP in his home in Jaduguda valley in the eastern state of Jharkhand.For Das and his wife Lakshmi, who have lost six children earlier than the age of one, there is only one possible culprit -- the nearby mines run by the state-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL).

"I know there is some connection among the mining and what's happened to my daughter," Lakshmi told AFP. "It's because of the uranium in the water here."Environmental groups say the mining company is pollute the groundwater by dumping radioactive waste within three so-called tailings ponds that hold the sludge created by the mining process -- a charge vehemently denied by UCIL.

Rio Tinto seen stoking bid war for Hathor

Cameco, Canada's largest uranium miner, raised its offer for Hathor by 20 percent to C$4.50 a share, top a friendly bid from Rio Tinto at C$4.15 given that Rio Tinto had been in talks with Hathor since early 2010, investors expect Rio Tinto is excited to take over the company and would have a bit more up its sleeve to top Cameco, especially because the target is not large.

"It wouldn't be out of character for them to come up with a high bid. In the scheme of Rio, we're not talking about a lot of money," said Peter Chilton, an market analyst at Constellation Capital Management, which owns Rio Tinto shares, Rio Tinto decline to comment on the latest bid by Cameco.

Rio Tinto mines uranium in Australia, during its ERA unit, and owns the Rossing uranium mine in Namibia, but its Australian assets face environmental obstacles and the Namibia mine is considered fairly low grade the main attraction in Hathor is its great exploration-stage Roughrider project in the uranium-rich Athabasca region of Saskatchewan in Western Canada, which has the potential to make at least 5 million pounds of uranium a year.

Chinese bet on Extract's uranium

An expected $2.2 billion bid for uranium explorer take out Resources by a Chinese state owned nuclear power company is being labelled as the boldest show of hold for the sector since the Japanese nuclear disaster in March.

The takeover speculation was spark after Guangdong Nuclear Power reopened talks with Extract's biggest shareholder, which hold nearly 43 per cent of the share register, according to a media statement in the UK over the weekend.

Australian-listed Extract's intended Husab uranium project in Namibia is the focus of Guandong's intentions it is a 15 million pound a year mine that take out says will be one of the world's three largest uranium mines take out placed its shares in a trade halt after it had climbed 82 cents, or 10.2 per cent, to $8.86 following an hour of trade

First Uranium shares plummet after South Africa orders stop on waste disposal

TORONTO - Shares in miner First Uranium (TSX:FIU) tumbled 15 per cent Tuesday after the company was ordered by the South African government to stop disposing waste at its tailings storage sites.

The Toronto-based company, which operates gold and uranium mines in South Africa, says its Mine Waste Solutions unit was ordered by regulators to stop disposing the waste due to "alleged issues regarding pipeline maintenance and non-reporting.''Stock in the company closed down nine cents to 50 cents Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after a trading halt Monday.

First Uranium says the regulator could lift the restrictions once the company can show it is in compliance.Until then, it has suspended operations — though First Uranium says it believes its is in compliance with regulations and will seek a legal injunction to resume operations.

Critics turn up heat on uranium miner

Environmental groups are warning Territorians to pay attention to a arrangement by Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) to enlarge its uranium mine in Kakadu National Park. They say they suppose the ultimate goal of the company is still to mine Jabiluka.Jabiluka, also placed within Kakadu, is the world's largest known untrained uranium deposit. In the late 1990s, ERA won the right to mine the area. But the traditional owners, the Mirrar people, conflicting it and the mine shaft were filled in.

Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) spokesmen Dave Sweeney say ERA has its eyes on a larger prize than just increasing its existing Ranger Uranium Mine operations."It wants to stay energetic and in the region and have on people down, and wait for times to change," he said. The Mirrar citizens are foregoing billions of dollars in royalties by differing mining in Jabiluka, his says. The ACF says ERA should abandon expansion procedure at its Ranger Uranium Mine.

A original report prepared for the Federal Government shows climate change might damage mine infrastructure and pose challenge to its processing systems more than the next 60 years. Mr Sweeney says Ranger Uranium Mine's location within the borders of Kakadu National Park makes it too risky to expand."Environmentally, there will be enlarged water, increased storm events, increased surge activity," he said."It will be more not easy to manage water and waste in Kakadu."We have previously already seen it this wet season."We have seen it for years, real troubles with water and waste organization at the Ranger Uranium Mine."ERA says it incorporates climate modeling into its onward planning for the mine. If climate forecasts modify, it says it will adjust its plans accordingly.