Antinuclear

BHP likley to drop plan for Yeelirrie uranium mine

BHP has in recent weeks backed away from a target set last year to invest roughly $80 billion over five years in its mining

BHP to decide on uranium deposit, THE AUSTRALIAN,  ROBB M. STEWART,   June 01, 2012  BHP Billiton, under pressure from state officials in Western Australia to sell the country’s second-largest undeveloped uranium deposit, said it intends to update investors on its plans for the Yeelirrie project later this year…..

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett and another member of the state parliament have said that BHP should sell
Yeelirrie, which lies hundreds of kilometers northeast of Perth, if it does not intend to develop a mine there.

“The government, or at least myself, has been encouraging BHP to
divest itself of Yeelirrie,” Mr Barnett told the state’s parliament
last week in response to questions.

BHP reactivated the project in 2008 as federal and state governments
warmed to mining uranium, but in mid-2011 deferred an environmental
review and management plan for Yeelirrie. The company planned to
provide more detail later this year, the spokeswoman in Melbourne
said.

The decision last year to put a hold on the project sparked market
speculation the company might seek to sell it…… BHP has in recent weeks backed away from a target set last year to invest roughly $80 billion over five years in its mining and petroleum operations, and
chief executive Marius Kloppers has said approval of projects would be
staggered.

The board is due to consider approving three giant multi-billion
dollar projects by the end of the year, including the expansion of the
Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, the world’s largest uranium
deposit.

John Bowler, a member of the legislative assembly for the town of
Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, this week told Dow Jones it was a
disgrace that BHP has been quiet regarding its plans for Yeelirrie. He
said he had heard that BHP had dropped plans to mine the deposit,
having last year scaled back a camp at the mine site…..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/bhp-to-decide-on-uranium-deposit/story-e6frg9df-1226379729879

June 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News, uranium