Howard has 'no hang ups' over nukes

February 24, 2006 in The Australian: PRIME Minister John Howard has reignited the nuclear energy debate in a wide-ranging interview to mark his 10th anniversary next week as prime minister. Mr Howard said he "had no hang-ups at all" about taking advantage of nuclear energy when it was economically viable...

Quarrying uranium in Australia

February 15 2006 feature article by Richard Black on the BBC News website: Look right as you reach the end of the three-hour drive from Darwin and your eyes stick onto a big pile of yellow something. A pile of yellow something arrests the eye on arrival at Ranger Then your brain clicks into overdrive. "This is a uranium mine, right? So that must be yellowcake." Then: "This is what the fuss was all about... this is what Saddam didn't try to buy from Niger. And here it is, just sitting out here in the rain." Fortunately, though, the yellow something turns out not to be yellowcake - but sulphur, used to make the 280 tonnes of sulphuric acid which the Ranger mine's processing plant needs every day...

$300m desal plant for Roxby Downs

Feburary 13, 2006 by Michelle Wiese Bockmann and Jeremy Roberts in The Australian: South Australia is about to invest $300 million on a desalination plant near Whyalla to supply seawater for Roxby Downs in the state's far north -- just as Sydney abandons its plans for a similar project. The South Australian Government, heading towards a March 18 election, is poised to back the construction of the plant to supply water for the proposed $5billion expansion of BHP Billiton's uranium and copper mine...

Number of uranium mines may double

February 11, 2006 by Lachlan Heywood in The Courier Mail: The number of uranium mines in Australia could double to eight or more if the Federal Government approves exports to China. Industry, Tourism and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane has revealed for the first time that three or four new uranium mines would likely be needed to meet extra demand from the waking giant. "China would absorb all our exports at the moment, so we have a potential doubling of the industry," he said...

Encounter to raise $4m for JV in uranium projects

February 10, 2006 ASX Announcement in WA Business News: Encounter Resources Limited ("Encounter") has today lodged with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission ("ASIC") a Prospectus for the issue of up to 20,000,000 shares at an issue price or $0.20 each to raise a total of up to $4,000,000 with the right to accept over subscription of 5,000,000 shares at an issue price of 20 cents each to raise an additional $1,000,000...

Buffalo to acquire Australian gold and uranium company

February 9, 2006 at CCN Mathews: (Canada) Buffalo Gold Ltd. is pleased to report that it has agreed to acquire all of the shares of GoldFX Ltd., a private Australian junior resource company. GoldFX owns gold exploration properties in the Drummond Basin and Croydon Goldfields in Queensland and uranium exploration properties in the Georgetown area of Queensland and the Amadeus basin of Northern Territory. Buffalo will, subject to regulatory approval, issue 4,000,000 shares to the shareholders of GoldFX in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding shares of GoldFX...

Thorium: An alternative to uranium

February 7, 2006 by Jack Lifton in Resource Investor: Thorium, one of the "rare earth metals," is an alternative to uranium as fuel for the construction of nuclear reactors designed for the purpose of producing electricity ... Thorium has been determined to be three to four times more abundant than uranium in nature. The world's total economically extractable reserves have been recently estimated at 1,200,000 tonnes (metric tonne units). Australia with 300,000 tonnes of reserves, leads the world in this category...

Act on N-waste facility: Downer

February 7, 2006 by Mac Blenkin in The Advertiser: THE longer it took for Australia's nuclear waste to be stored securely, the greater the risk of some falling into the hands of terrorists, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. He told a conference on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction that it had taken a very long time to develop a national waste repository, a scheme launched under the former Labor government but still not a reality...

ERA: Who to believe?

February 7, 2006 in Australasian Investment Review: No one ever expects analysts to agree on everything. A select group of recommendations on any given stock will usually feature some combination of Buys and Holds, or Holds and Sells, or even all three. When a stock is not widely covered, disparity of opinion becomes rather more pronounced. In the case of uranium miner Energy Resources Australia (ERA), only two of the leading brokers in AIR’s universe proffer an opinion. This is likely because ERA is some 68% owned by Rio Tinto (RIO) and thus can almost be included as a division of the resource giant...

Oxiana, Minotaur spin off uranium assets

February 2, 2006 in The Age: Oxiana Ltd and Minotaur Exploration Ltd have amalgamated their uranium interests into a new float and will be seeking $18 million in an initial public offering. The new float, Toro Energy, is fully underwritten by Lands Kirwan Tong Stockbrokers Pty Ltd and Taylor Collison Ltd. Oxiana and Minotaur will each hold 25 per cent in the company once it is listed...

BHP asked to dump Olympic Dam expansion

February 2, 2006 in The Age: Conservationists on Thursday handed 3,000 postcards to BHP Billiton staff which ask the company to abandon plans to expand the Olympic Dam uranium mine, near Roxby Downs in South Australia. After a small protest outside the company's office in Melbourne on Thursday morning, representatives of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) delivered the signed postcards addressed to BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus...

Plenty of cake but little icing for ERA

February 2, 2006 by Mandi Zonneveldt in The Herald Sun: ENERGY Resources of Australia increased production at its Ranger uranium mine by 15 per cent last year but missed out on the huge rise in uranium prices. The company yesterday reported a 10 per cent increase in full-year profit to $40.7 million. But the average sale price of its uranium rose just 17 per cent to $US16 ($A21.12) a pound due to long-term contracts...