Antinuclear

Olympic Dam uranium mine won’t replace Holden jobs

27 Dec 13 “The stalled Olympic Dam mine expansion is not the answer to job creation in South Australia, despite the Prime Minister’s vivid imagination”, according to Greens SA Parliamentary Leader, Mark Parnell MLC

“What the PM should be doing instead is focusing on how best to help South Australian industries create jobs in areas where we have a real competitive and natural advantage.  If he opened his mind to the possibilities, he would see that SA is a leader in renewable energy and there is great potential for jobs growth in wind power, solar PV and in the emerging area of Solar Thermal, such as that proposed for Port Augusta to replace the existing dirty coal fired power stations. [See:http://bze.org.au/repower-port-augusta]

“That’s why the Prime Minister’s decision to axe the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is bad news for South Australia.  It’s also why we should be very worried about his likely decision to water down the Renewable Energy Target.  This target is the reason why so many energy companies chose to invest in South Australia over the last few years – because our abundant wind and solar resources give us the edge over other States in the grid.

“Liberal leader, Steven Marshall should be horrified at what his party is doing to South Australia’s future economic opportunities and he should be calling on the PM to change direction.

“If both State Labor and Liberal were really thinking of the future, they would be joining the dots and realising that a better way of dealing with our mineral resources is to insist on local processing, powered by SA renewable energy, to deliver more long-term sustainable jobs and maximise the value we get from our natural resources.

The original Olympic Dam Expansion model is dead, but it’s not too late to revisit local processing of copper, gold and silver, whilst leaving the problematic uranium behind in the tailings.

“Mining employs less than 2% of the Australian workforce.  More local processing of ore using renewable energy extracts maximum jobs and economic benefit for all South Australians.  Exporting ore to China exports most of the jobs as well.  Local processing of ore would create substantially more jobs than simply digging it up and shipping it out”, concluded Mark Parnell.

December 27, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, South Australia, uranium