Toro Energy gives Dr Vanessa Guthrie the poisoned uranium chalice

It looks as if Toro Energy, with its planned uranium mine Wiluna, Western Australia might be following an Australian tradition – of giving “the poisoned chalice” to a woman.

Australia’s had quite a history of giving women impossible jobs – I’m thinking mainly here of some State Premiers – Carmel Lawrence, Joan Kirner, Kristina Keneally. But it can happen in industry, too.

At Toro Energy, Dr Vanessa Guthrie, with a background in environmental sustainability, joins nuclear enthusiast Dr Erica Smyth. Smyth has been advocating nuclear power for Australia, nuclear powered desalination plants, and she presided over Toro’s propaganda campaign, with Doug Boreham preaching low level radiation as beneficial to health.

“There are serious flaws in the state assessment process and the studies Toro provided to the State Government. The project is a long way from being approved and the company faces serious financing constraints.

“Under new mine closure guidelines Toro has to find 100% of the mine closure costs in order to get approval to mine. So Toro needs $150 million to close a mine even before it has raised the $300 million to open it. The combination of a uranium price in free-fall and rising mine costs make this project increasingly unviable.” – Mia Pepper

Toro Energy’s uranium mining push comes as proven miners, including BHP Billiton and Cameco, defer or get out of planned uranium projects in WA. – Christina Macpherson

Women lead in ASX first, The Age, Peter Ker, December 5, 2012 THE branding is positively male, but the executive ranks of Toro Energy are about to take on a feminine look. In what is believed to be a unique set of circumstances in Australia, Toro will soon have women occupying both the chief executive and chairman roles, after announcing the departure of long-serving chief executive Greg Hall on Tuesday.

The situation will be formalised on February 8, when Dr Vanessa Guthrie replaces Mr Hall in running the company that is close to developing Australia’s next uranium mine.
Her chairman will be Erica Smyth, who has led the Toro board for more than three years. While it is difficult to be certain, most gender diversity experts believe the change will make Toro the only ASX-listed company to boast the female quinella.
”To our knowledge this is the first time there has been the double of
a female chair and a female CEO,” said Steve Burrell from the
Australian Institute of Company Directors.
The situation is even more unusual for a mining company: statistics
from the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency show that
only 5.2 per cent of female directors in the ASX 500 worked for
”materials” companies.

December 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business, Christina reviews, uranium, Western Australia

No comments yet.

Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items