Uranium supply to India to be demand based: Australia

Australia's uranium supply to India will be require based once the approvals for the yellow cake exports to New Delhi are finalized, Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has said.

"It (uranium supply) will be require based. The supply once accepted for exports will be of a commercial nature between the Australian uranium and mining industry and potential customers in India," Ferguson told PTI.

Asked when the uranium exports will begin, Ferguson said We don't put a timeframe. This is about a negotiation of a manufactured goods between Australia and India.The issue is to get it right to supply negotiations and to make sure that we take the individual community with it in terms of their confidence concerning the fact that the uranium will be used safely.

GoviEx Uranium and Toshiba Complete US$40 Million Strategic Financing and Sign Off-Take Agreement

GoviEx Uranium Inc.'s Executive Chairman Mr. Govind Friedland announced today that the company has closed a US$40 million tactical financing and executed an off-take agreement with Japanese industrial and nuclear giant Toshiba Corporation to advance the growth of GoviEx's Madaouela Project, located in the heart of Niger's uranium-producing district.

"We are pleased to welcome a partner with Toshiba's stature as a global enterprise that has built a reputation as one of the world's major suppliers of nuclear power reactors," said Mr. Friedland. "Toshiba's investment is an conversant gesture of confidence, not just in our management team and our project, but also in the Republic of Niger and its long history as a stable partner in increasing and supporting uninterrupted uranium exports from one of the world's most prolific uranium mining districts."

Mr. Kiyoshi Okamura, Corporate Vice-President of Toshiba, said, "Toshiba has long been looking for an additional project that makes sense in conditions of size and production timeline. GoviEx stood out from others and it is important for Toshiba to make an upstream investment to secure a long-term, stable supply for our clients worldwide." The off-take agreement provides for a 14-year right and compulsion to purchase up to 600,000 pounds of uranium per year, roughly equivalent to the fuel necessary to operate one 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant.

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Selling uranium to India, responsibly

Prime Minister Gillard's announcement that she will seek a modify in Labor's platform to permit uranium exports to India is problematic for Australia's non-proliferation policy and reputation. I share the concern about the obvious failure to extract anything from India in return for a major policy shift, and the implication that uranium exports to India will soon develop into the law as soon as ALP policy has been changed, without the due process frequently reserved for changes of policy of this magnitude.

But let's not throw our hand up in the air just yet. A change in ALP policy is the backing a Gillard Government will need previous to any negotiations can commence with India, negotiations which might yield net reimbursement to Australia's non-proliferation agenda.First, the proposal to modify decades of Australian policy on which countries we sell uranium to is not entirely capricious. There are some sound policy reason for exporting uranium to India, mainly strategic and environmental: India is a rising power with which we should found a strategic relationship. As thoroughly irksome as this is, India has made it clear that the value of a closer relationship is right to use to Australian uranium.

India's energy needs are insatiable and Nuclear energy will help limit the damage to the global environment from its growing energy use. The world also needs India to be an lively participant in the fight against proliferation and in running emerging nuclear tensions in its region. As it is not and never will be a member of the NPT, other mechanisms for as well as India in these efforts are needed.

Worry grows over Sask. uranium exports

Fears that Saskatchewan uranium may be used in weapons have been triggered by a recently signed export agreement with India. Prime Minister Stephen Harper sign a nuclear co-operation conformity on Sunday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in Toronto for the G20 summit. It allows for uranium exports to India and technological interactions that could be worth billions to Canada's nuclear industry.

Ann Coxworth, of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, said she fears the central deal could make it possible for Saskatchewan's uranium to end up in weapons. "We need to very seriously consider whether exporting uranium around the world is the type of business that we should be in," said Coxworth.

But Lyle Krahn, spokesman for Saskatoon-based uranium producer Cameco, said the agreement is a growth chance for his company, which is working to secure overseas uranium markets in places like China and India. "We feel that aligns nicely with our plan to twice uranium production by 2018," said Krahn. Coxworth said the environmental society is working to raise public awareness in hopes of stopping the India deal.

Australia’s Abbott Wants Japan Trade Deal, India Uranium Sales

Australia will try to clinch a trade dealing with Japan, boosting ties with its second-largest trading partner after China, and will sell uranium to India under a Liberal-National government, opposition leader Tony Abbott said.

The coalition will build a “strong strategic partnership” with Japan, including stronger military links and a conclusion to free trade talks, and will “overturn Labor’s ban on uranium exports,” Abbott said today in a speaking to the Asialink-Asia Society forum in Canberra.

Abbott’s coalition, tied with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor party in the polls in the lead up to a ballot that must be called by April, will also “work enthusiastically with China” and will not pretend the two nations have “important differences in the way we do things,” he said.

Australia, which is the third-largest uranium producers behind Kazakhstan and Canada, has the world’s biggest known uranium reserves, according to estimates from the World Nuclear Association. Rudd’s government does not allow uranium to be sold to India for energy use because the South Asian country hasn’t agreed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.