Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Investors flee as uranium price collapses even further

graph-down-uraniumA uranium price collapse has made mining companies radioactive to investors, Quartz By Jason Karaian   May 28, 2014 Here’s the latest sign that uranium-mining doesn’t pay: Paladin Energy, an Australian uranium mining group, announced today that it was ceasing production(pdf) at a key mine in Malawi. The move will take 3.3 million pounds of uranium per year off the market.

Paladin blames the plunge in the market price for the commodity, which has been languishing below $30 per pound, down from a peak of around $140 per pound in 2007:……..

Paladin is far from alone. As uranium prices have tumbled, others have been feeling the pinch. Indeed, for some 60% of global uranium production, the cost of extraction is higher than the market price for the commodity, the firm says.

In 2012, BHP Billiton put off a $20-billion expansion plan for a mine that sits on the world’s largest known uranium deposit. The prospects for processing more yellowcake at the site still look dim, given depressed prices. Yesterday, the French nuclear group Areva signed a uranium mining deal with the government of Niger, the world’s fourth-largest producer, but immediately put the start of the project on hold until prices improve. “Neither Areva nor Niger are interested in dumping uranium on the market that would not find a buyer,” Areva boss Luc Oursel said.

Uranium prices have been hit by a series of setbacks in recent years, from a global financial crisis that put a big dent in nuclear power demand, to a glut ofdecommissioned weapons-grade uranium, to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, which led to the shutdown of all that nation’s nuclear power plants and inspired nuclear phase-outs in places such as Germany and Switzerland.Investors in uranium mines have seen their assets plunge in value:……http://qz.com/213889/a-uranium-price-collapse-has-made-mining-companies-radioactive-to-investors/

May 30, 2014 - Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, business, uranium

No comments yet.

Leave a comment