Antinuclear

The bleak outlook comes as the Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia’s northern Flinders Ranges was yesterday opened after five years of delays.

Four Mile is a joint venture project between Melbourne-based Alliance Resources and Quasar — a subsidiary of Heathgate Resources that is owned by US defence and nuclear physics company General Atomics.

The mine, which becomes Australia’s fifth and South Australia’s fourth uranium mine, began production in April to feed the processing plant at the site of the neighbouring Beverley uranium mine, also owned by Heathgate.

But the company said yesterday that the Beverley mine was no longer operational, and had been mothballed in January because of low uranium prices.

This comes after Canadian company Uranium One announced in November that it would cease production at the Honeymoon uranium mine, also in outback South Australia. Since the Fukushima incident in 2011, uranium prices have tumbled from a high of $US70 a pound to $US28.50.

Quasar director Dave Roberts said Four Mile was also “not economic” because of weak uranium prices. “We have got prices of $US28 a pound and I would expect … costs of production may be higher than that,” Mr Roberts said yesterday…….. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/price-fallout-hits-uranium-mines/story-e6frg8zx-1226966903070?nk=38b4e03626cff750bb726e65c1a3e9f4