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Canada's gain and Australia's loss: Re Uranium exports to India

November 29th, 2009

This just came into my inbox…

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Many thanks to the Australian Labor Government for their idiotic stance on exporting uranium to India. It is Canada’s gain and Australia’s loss but India did not sign the Non Proliferation Treaty did they? But then what does that have to do with nuclear energy. Remember Canada gave them that technology 35 years ago under another left wing Liberal government to build nuclear bombs. Maybe someone in Oz should explain the difference between nuclear power and nuclear bombs to your government. We too have a labor party here in Canada but so far they have only ever elected between twenty or thirty seats in parliament. I don’t think they ever have a hope in hell of getting enough seats to form government because they have policies like your current left wing government. Someday when all of your uranium mines are owned by foreign companies someone might wake up but by then it will be too late.

Keep voting for those Labor governments we like that here in Canada!

Gary Kreitz
Edmonton Canada

Peak Uranium Debate

November 28th, 2009

The article below gives a heads up for the outlook of a world powered by Uranium.

Many will recognise that parallel to the Peak Oil debate, the world is facing several areas where we may be facing so called “peaks”, broadly defined as where economic production of a vital substance is no longer possible.

These Peak substances include Phosphate for agriculture, Rare Earths, Lithium and possibly Cobalt. The last three are seen as vital elements for the transition to the 21st Century’s “Electron Economy”.

The Electron Economy is the outcome of the shift to a low Carbon economy, now that the Hydrogen economy has been widely dismissed and although the term hasn’t been widely used, the use of electrons/electricity to power our transport, factories etc is now underway and of course relates to the use of Uranium to produce electricity.

Around the world those opposing the building of more Nuclear reactors for electricity production use the argument that there is simply not enough uranium and that we are already approaching a peak situation, where over the next 10 years we will see demand well outstrip supply.


Peak Uranium Debate


Wed, Nov 25, 2009

When, if and have we already reached peak oil are questions that have been debated for quite sometime now. Regardless of the correct answer, nations around the globe are looking for fossil fuel alternatives that will allow them to break with their oil dependency.

Nuclear power is quickly becoming a viable option and hundreds of new nuclear facilities are planned for construction in countries like China, India, the UK, Russia and the US.

Much like the debate over peak oil, questions concerning the ability of the earth’s uranium reserves to meet the expected demand of a world gone nuclear are beginning to make waves.

Many in the overlapping uranium and nuclear industries claim the known below-ground uranium supply is enough to sustain nuclear energy production for decades upon decades. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) both report that enough uranium exists to power existing plants for another 100 years.

Although, it is conceded that huge effort and large amounts of investment on the part of the uranium mining sector will be needed if future demands are to be met.

Writing for The Business Insider, Vincent Fernando reports that in 2008 global uranium consumption surpassed production and will likely continue to do so this year and next. So, uranium miners have some catching up to do. However, “this year alone, spending on uranium exploration is down 20 per cent on 2008,” points out The Telegraph’s Rowena Mason.

As long as spot prices remain depressed, there will be little incentive for miners to invest time and money on extracting more resources.

That could prove to be a problem since the IAEA and NEA both forecast that global uranium is likely to double in the next twenty years. But, their “Red Book” publication states that the “currently identified resources are adequate to meet this expansion.”

Uranium Peak in 2013?

Some are not so optimistic about the world’s uranium supply and the ability of nuclear power to meet the energy needs of the future.

In The Future of Nuclear Energy: Facts and Fiction, Dr Michael Dittmar of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology claims that western uranium stocks will run out by 2013. According to Dr Dittmar, there exists a misconceived notion that uranium is an abundant resource.

However, a look at the comments posted on a blog referring to Dittmar’s assertions (which also go so far as to say nuclear is not a viable option for energy production and is in fact fraught with numerous difficulties) shows this topic and his ideals are quite contentious:

—”While the anti-nuke contingent in the US and in parts of Europe continues to rant about the economic infeasibility of nuclear power, France has had it working just fine for many years. When we collapse economically under the rising cost of oil, in France they will be zipping about in high-speed trains and electric cars.”

— “What a load of alarmist rubbish this article is. Australia has 1.2 million tonnes of known recoverable uranium, 23 per cent of the worlds total of 5.5 million….At a burn rate of 65,000 tonnes per annum that’s ….85 years worth!!!!!!!!!! By which time, of course, more resources will have been discovered.”

Admin AKA Sparty: What the author of this comment failed to recognise is that as far as Uranium production in Australia is concerned our prevailing political climate, land rights issues, red tape and general lassitude has led to the situation where many of our Uranium companies find that there is less sovereign risk in countries like Namibia, Zambia etc and that it will take many more years before Australia actually gets more supplies to market.

Read full article: http://www.uraniuminvestingnews.com/2462/peak-uranium-debate.html

Greenland Energy and Minerals

November 24th, 2009

ASX: GGG is set to become one of Australia’s most valuable companies in one of the world’s remotest places.

Greenland a tiny nation of around 80,000 people has an absolutely massive Rare Earth Elements – uranium resource which will see them go from being virtually subsistence fishermen to having riches akin to the Saudi Princes. There is some sovereign risk so do your homework…

I can imagine the gnashing of many of China’s REE monopolists and the joyful response of the USA and Japan that their pathway to the 21st century’s Electron Economy has been unblocked.

The image below shows the Marketclub trend analysis for GGG
ggg-galloping

Just HOW BIG IS IT?
The image below shows where they drilled for the JORC in the top left hand corner. The other two zones outlined seem to have as much if not more REEs.
ggg-600

So now we can probably say that Greenland Energy and Minerals is likely to have MORE REEs than China.
rees-county-holdings

The REEs are essential components for the 21 st Century.
ree-lyc

Australian companies hold more REEs than China.. we are on the verge of tremendous riches and power. (And now that there is increasing demand the old games that China played of flooding the market and killing off their competitors just won’t work again)
rees-by-country

And it gets even better for Australia as one of our small REE-Uranium players has the “holy grail” of high % HEAVY Rare Earth Elements and they are on the verge of production.
alk

You can read about all of this on www.AustralianRareEarths.com

And if you want the icing on the cake then visit www.Australian-Lithium.com

Emerging Nuclear Power Countries: Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020

November 17th, 2009

GlobalData’s latest report, “Emerging Nuclear Power Countries: Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020”, report tracks the nuclear expansion plans of more than 20 countries across the global nuclear industry, with an analysis of its market size during the period 2010-30. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the emerging nuclear power countries globally. The emerging nuclear power countries will drive the global nuclear industry growth in the years ahead.

Read full article by Global data for those interested to see which countries are going towards nuclear power for base-load electricity.

emerging-nuclear-power-countries

Strong rises in uranium indexes data to 09/09/09

November 10th, 2009

Strong rises in uranium indexes data to 09/09/09

See charts

Australian Uranium Share Index
The ALTEX-Australia Uranium Index is Australia’s leading Uranium share price index. The Australian Uranium Index tracks the performance of all companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange that have a primary focus on the exploration and production of Uranium.

Global Uranium Share Index
The ALTEX-Global is the world’s leading Uranium share price index. The Global Uranium Index tracks the performance of the largest 25 publically listed companies by market capitalisation that have a primary focus on the exploration and production of Uranium…

UP, Up and away. We have lift-off.

Paladin to open Queensland Uranium mine in 2013

November 8th, 2009

Fascinating interview with John Borshoff CEO Paladin and Rober Gottliebsen et al.

Read full article
Snippet

SB: John, in Australia with the change in the federal Labor position on new mines how long will it be before you actually have an operating project here?

JB: We’re aiming for about 2012, 2013, let’s say, late 2013.

SB: Which one will it be?

JB: I think it’ll be a Queensland operation.

SB: Queensland’s the one government which hasn’t given a tick yet, yet are you going to be able to change their minds?

JB: I think the world is changing everybody’s mind. There’s a sort of an inevitability that anybody is starting to realise is difficult to oppose. When you see how Europe has completely bent over and Germany about to do the same, when you see the chaotic state of the Australian uranium policy that existed four years ago and now there’s cohesion in all uranium states and Canberra and the Lone Ranger in Queensland and I think the pressure will become supreme. So, I think 18 months or so, within our schedule, things will be happening there. You you can’t be selling coal and saying your fuel mix is decided by some sort of ideology that was borne in the ‘70s.

SB: In a broad sense, if you did get a tick in Queensland, how big could that project be?

JB: Oh look, between 5 million pounds to 6 million pounds a year we’re aiming for. We want a resource base there that’s in the sort of 150 million to 200 million pounds. I think the region is capable of that and thought it’d be a substantial cornerstone project with the Ranger, Olympic Dam and Mount Isa and with long life.

pdn-valhalla-skal

EXTRACT ASX EXT on the way to 500m pounds of Uranium

November 7th, 2009

From the 2009 Annual report

JORC compliant global resources of 292Mlbs U3O8 (Rossing South + Ida Dome)

Indicated and inferred from Rossing South of 267M U3O8 Jorc compliant plus the company announced an exploration target for areas not included in the current resource estimates. From these additional areas the company had set an initial target in the range of 185-285 Mlb of U3O8.

Again from the annual report: With the new zones of mineralisation emerging our resource target of 500mlbs U3O8 from the current drilling program is within reach.

The image puts it all into perspective:
nambia-uranium-by-metal