Antinuclear

The Honeymoon is over: post Fukushima reality check for Australia’s uranium industry

13 Nov 13 ACF has described reports of the imminent closure of the Honeymoon uranium mine in South Australia as further proof of the marginal and embattled nature of the uranium sector that highlights the need for an evidence based assessment of Australia’s uranium trade.

 The Honeymoon mine in north east South Australia is set to close following a write down in the mine’s value of over seventy million dollars due to a combination of high costs, technical difficulties and a collapsing uranium price as the market fallout from the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan continues.

The Honeymoon closure is the latest in a run of bad news for Australia’s uranium industry that includes:

• Sustained losses and operational failures at Energy Resources of Australia’s Ranger mine in Kakadu
• The scrapping of plans for a massive expansion of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine in SA because of the ‘uncertain’ uranium market
• A fall of around fifty per cent in the uranium commodity price and larger falls in the share value of uranium mining companies since the Fukushima crisis began
• Attempts by Queensland uranium promoters to receive ‘royalty relief’ and public concessions even before making any formal applications to mine
• Projects stalled, scrapped or deferred across WA, SA and the NT and uranium hopefuls like Toro Energy effectively stranded without the necessary approvals or financing
• Increased shareholder anger over the poor performance of uranium companies like the Perth based Paladin Energy
• Sustained global scepticism over the role of nuclear energy following Fukushima – a continuing crisis directly fuelled by Australian uranium

“The uranium industry has long caused trouble, now it is increasingly in trouble. The Honeymoon is well and truly over,” said ACF campaigner Dave Sweeney.

“The sector offers low returns in the shape of jobs and dollars but poses high risks, here and abroad. It is time for politicians to stop accepting industry promises and start genuinely examining industry performance”.

The most recent independent assessment of the Australian uranium industry – an inquiry by the Australian Senate in October 2003 – found the sector characterised by underperformance  and non-compliance, an absence of reliable data to measure contamination or its impact on the environment and an operational culture focussed on short term considerations.

Uranium accounted for only 0.29 per cent of national export revenue and less than 0.015 per cent of Australian jobs in the decade to 2011. “Uranium mining is a high risk, low return sector that poses unique, unresolved and long-lived threats and does not enjoy secure social license”.

“In the shadow of Fukushima, and given the call by the UN Secretary General in September 2011 that Australia conduct ‘an in-depth assessment of the net cost impact of the impacts of mining fissionable material (uranium) on local communities and ecosystems,’ it is time for a comprehensive and independent assessment of the costs and consequences of the uranium sector,” said Dave Sweeney.

November 13, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium