The federal government expect to finalize a uranium sales deal with the United Arab Emirates by mid-2012, Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson says. Australia is the world's third leading uranium exporter and has three mines in process, but does not use nuclear power. Australia's existing uranium customers contain the United Kingdom, United States and China. "I was in Sydney last week to continue discussions with United Arab Emirates, to conclude negotiations as soon as possible through respect to our chance to actively sell uranium to the UAE," Mr Ferguson said at a business function in Perth on Wednesday.
The UAE would require entering into a bilateral agreement with Australia, Mr Ferguson said. "We will pursue those discussions over the next 12 to 15 months or so." The talks showed the government's stance on the uranium sector had not been affected by Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis, he said. "Events in Japan have not changed the Australian government's position with reverence to our uranium mining, export and nuclear power policies."
Mr Ferguson said he was working with the uranium sector to set up a national record for radiation dose levels among the industry's workers. "It's something we assured in the lead-up to the 2007 election. ”It's been an subject I must say I first raised through my union in the 1970s when I was involved in recruit uranium workers as members, so for me it's been a extended standing interest. "In my opinion, previous governments should have put a dose register in place and we will complete that duty this year."
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. (ERA.AU) has given its assurance that there's no risk of impure water spill from a uranium mine into Australia's pristine Kakadu National Park next months of heavy rainfall. The miner said Monday that although it may have to pump water from the tailing dam at its Ranger uranium mine into the main pit to avoid overflow, there's no risk of contamination to the surrounding environment. Ranger borders Kakadu and its world tradition listed wetlands. "We're confident that our ultimate contingency plan to pump water out of the tailing dam and into Pit Three is a sound plan and there is no risk of overflow," an ERA spokeswoman said. There is no require enacting the contingency plant at present, she added.
Water levels in the tailing dam are about 10-20 centimeters under their 53 meter height limit. The spokeswoman said that Pit Three, although filled with about 90 meters of water, is around 200 meters profound and there's no concern at all of contaminated water leaking out. ERA, which is majority owned by Rio Tinto (RIO), said last Tuesday that a suspension of dispensation plant operations at Ranger would be extended until late July to permit water levels to fall. Since then, Bureau of Meteorology records show that there hasn't been much rainfall at the near town of Jabiru, with only 8.0 millimeters falling last Thursday and close to nothing on other days.
There was about three weeks left of the official wet season, ERA said final Tuesday. Ranger has this year recorded its third-highest wet season on record. Its three worst wet seasons have all happen within the last five years. ERA is among Australian miners with operations that have been harshly hampered by heavy rainfall caused by a La Nina weather pattern, which can reason more rain in Australia and drought in South America.
Brazil plans to spend 3 billion reais to build two plants enabling the country to carry out uranium enrichment completely within its borders, Mines and Energy Minister Edisao Lobao said in an interview published Friday in business daily Valor. “We estimate we have 1.1 million tons in uranium reserves. With those massive reserves, we must perform all the treatment and enrichment steps in the country,” he told the newspaper. Brazil, which has the world’s sixth-major uranium reserves, currently relies on Canada and France to exchange the ore into gas, a vital part of the enrichment process. The uranium gas returns to Brazil, where Brazilian proprietary technology transform it into fuel capsule for the giant South American country’s two nuclear power services.
The new processing plants will make state own Industrias Nucleares do Brasil self enough in uranium enrichment for power generation. Work is previously under way on a third power reactor, Angra 3, that is supposed to be process in 2015, and the government needs to build another four nuclear power facilities. The government is also prepare legislation require private mining companies to directly inform authorities if they encounter uranium while take out other minerals, Lobao said. “If the uranium deposit is bigger than that of the mineral that firm is use, we could pay them compensation or we could offer a partnership” to extract the uranium, the minister said.
Diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks disclose abysmal safety and security values in the African uranium mining industry, analysts say. Cables expose U.S. diplomats in a number of African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Burundi and others, report the worst safety and security standards in those countries' uranium and nuclear facilities, Inter Press Service report Sunday. The cables also reveal the alleged participation of European, Chinese, Indian and South Korean companies in the unlawful taking out and smuggling of uranium from Africa.
Uranium import from African countries is used by most European reactors. At CREN-K, a nuclear research center in the DRC, "outside and internal security is poor, leaving the ability vulnerable to theft," Roger A. Meece, U.S. ambassador to DRC, report in a 2006 cable. "Once inside the facility, no one controls the entry to the nuclear reactor, although a key is necessary to enter the room," Meece wrote. "The fuel rod storage room, where the nine idle fuel rods are stored, was not locked, and the fuel rods are not kept in a divide locked container," he reported. The cable said that large levels of radioactivity have been calculated in numerous regions of the DRC.
Uranium has become one of the mainly sought after metals in 2010 and it might continue to be so in the upcoming year also. According to market analyst, require from India and China will keep uranium prices up in 2011 also. Both these nations have chalked out big plans to place up latest nuclear power plants to meet their power demands. This will help uranium prices to go up in the upcoming year also. Uranium prices have rise about 20 percent since October because of a restricted supply of the nuclear fuel being available to utilities, manufacturer and traders on the spot market.
Uranium oxide concentrate for instant release reached $62.50 a pound this week. Meanwhile, the Uranium Stocks Index is high on Thursday, up 1.6%, adding to a six month presentation that has seen the Index double, and there could be more benefit to come for uranium stocks in 2011. Supply and demand matter have helped drive spot uranium prices as tall as $62.50 in recent weeks, but prices could rush more next year. China’s entry into the uranium market is the means to drive prices top. The country just announced a deal with Cameco (CCJ), the major US-listed uranium miner by market value.
The United States and Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday signed an contract to avoid trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials, the US embassy said. The agreement comes after a November UN report revealed that a group of Rwandan rebel in the east of the country effort to sell six containers of uranium which dated back to the days of Belgian colonial rule. The contract highlights Washington's commitment to helping DR Congo efficiently deal with propagation of nuclear materials, the US embassy said in a statement.
The United States has signed related deals with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, the statement said. The uranium exposed by UN experts came from the country's only uranium mine in Shinkolobwe, Katanga province, which blocked in 1960. Uranium from Shinkolobwe was sold to the United States by Belgium in 1943 and used in the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. DR Congo and French nuclear huge Areva agreed a contract to develop uranium mining in March last year.
