Antinuclear

Honeymoon uranium mine ‘not economic’ says Mitsui trading company

Mitsui pulls out of Honeymoon mine, BY: BARRY FITZGERALD  The Australian May 10, 2012  JAPANESE
trading house Mitsui is pulling out of Australia’s newest uranium mine, the 340 tonnes a year Honeymoon operation in South Australia’s outback….. Mitsui took up its stake in Honeymoon in 2008. It was a first for the trading house, adding uranium to its better known portfolio of oil, coal and global liquefied natural gas interests.

Honeymoon started production in 2010 after expenditure of $138 million, with Mitsui’s entry cost being a $104m contribution to the capital cost. Its annual production makes it the smallest of Australia’s uranium mines behind ERA’s Ranger mine in Kakadu, BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam in South Australia and Heathgate’s Beverley
mine in South Australia.

Mitsui’s exit follows the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami, which led to meltdowns at  the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. But a Mitsui spokesman said the decision to exit Honeymoon was not directly related to the Fukushima tragedy.

Mitsui “could not foresee sufficient economic return from the project”, he said.

May 9, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business, South Australia, uranium | South Australia