Questionable mining company applies to explore for uranium in NSW
Mining company with links to suspended firm first to apply for NSW uranium licence SMH, January 15, 2015 Sean Nicholls A Hong Kong businessman with ties to a company whose shares are suspended after rocketing to 40 times their value is seeking to explore for uranium in NSW after the government invited his firm to apply for a licence.
Chi Ho William Lo is a director of EJ Resources, one of six companies invited to apply by Resources Minister Anthony Roberts last September after the state government overturned a decades-old ban on uranium exploration in 2012.
It followed an expressions of interest process during which EJ Resources was assessed in February and March by a panel that recommended Mr Roberts grant the company consent to apply.
It lodged three exploration licence applications on December 19.
But company records reveal Mr Lo and a fellow director, Siu-Wing Selwyn Chan, are former directors of Fifth Element Resources, which gained notoriety soon after listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in May last year.
Fifth Element Resources astonished market watchers when its share price soared from $0.20 to $7.96 in two months.
This valued the company at more than $300 million, despite it not announcing any significant news in relation to four gold and copper exploration licences it holds around western NSW. The licences were bought from EJ Resources the previous January.
On July 15 the ASX announced shares in Fifth Element Resources would be suspended from trading while an inquiry was launched into whether it had satisfied the rules for listing……..http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mining-company-with-links-to-suspended-firm-first-to-apply-for-nsw-uranium-licence-20150114-12myku.html
The Global Catholic Climate Movement launched in Australia
Catholics in Australia join global movement to curb climate change, The Age January 15, 2015 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald Australia’s Catholics are preparing to step up campaigns to address climate change ahead of an expected call to action by Pope Francis.
The Global Catholic Climate Movement, an international coalition of Catholic groups including Catholic Earthcare Australia, was launched on Thursday to bolster support for a global climate treaty at the Paris summit planned for December. That’s going to create real change that’s really needed, and that’s great.
Jacqui Remond, director of Catholic Earthcare Australia, said Catholics numbered one in four Australians and the time is ripe for them to push for greater action on curbing global warming.
“Looking at the leadership and the governance we have in Australia right now, there isn’t a lot of hope coming from the policies and the agenda that’s set,” Ms Remond said.
However, Ms Remond said hope is coming from abroad with Pope Francis expected to release the first encyclical on ecology as soon as March. The doctrinal directive is likely to focus on the damage to humanity and ecosystems caused by climate change.
“[The encyclical] has a significant influence because it sets a benchmark for learning for everyone in the church, which includes the cardinals, the bishops, the clergy, the lay people,” Ms Remond said. “This message will have an incredible ripple effect through the church and beyond.”
Ms Remond said Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had also spoken out about climate change, with the latter installing solar panels on church buildings in Rome and making the Vatican the world’s first carbon-neutral state…….http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/catholics-in-australia-join-global-movement-to-curb-climate-change-20150115-12qs0r.html
Western Australian Government’s plan to extinguish native title & land rights in one hit
Deal to extinguish native title & land rights in one hit, The Stringer by Gerry Georgatos January 14th, 2015 More than 300 Noongar people gathered at a Perth park last Saturday to speak out against the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council’s (SWALSC) support for the Western Australian Government $1.3 billion in-kind package proposal. The Government offer if accepted by Noongar people will come on the condition that their native title rights are extinguished, and therefore whatever shot they have at land rights are extinguished.
It was the largest gathering of the Noongar community, with many high profile Elders, together in the one place on the issue of the Government proposal. The SWALSC have held many community consultations but not one of these community meetings brought together as many Noongars as were present at the ‘No Surrender’ event. The majority of SWALSC community consultations have had less than a dozen people attend.
One of the ‘No Surrender’ campaign organisers, Mervyn Eades said that if the Government proposal is passed through authorisation meetings then “our land and cultural rights will be extinguished.”
“There is nothing in this deal by the Government that provides any certainty over our land rights. We must not accept this deal. We must preserve our lore over the White man’s law.”
“There have been more than 300 native title determinations and more than 900 Indigenous land use agreements but our people wherever in this country have not benefited. Native title has divided and sold out our people. We will not sell out Noongar people,” said Mr Eades.
Noongar cultural advisor and language speaker, Joe Collard, said the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council is short-changing the claimant groups.
“Our native title representative body, our champion, the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council has let down our people. It has got nothing right in any of this. It does not even know or have any idea of our rightful claimant areas, of our clans, of our family run lines.”
Mr Collard said there is enough support in the Noongar community that if it is galvanised can topple the executive leadership of the SWALSC……….
Senior Elder Margaret Culbong said, “We never ceded this land, so we are not going to just give it up. Native title I never agreed with and this deal is less than native title. Neither is native title or this Government’s offer anything to do with land rights.”
Authorisation meetings commence at the end of the month. hestringer.com.au/deal-to-extinguish-native-title-land-rights-in-one-hit-9339#.VLlxTdKUcnk
Australian government funding research in China into dodgy thorium nuclear reactors
Isn’t this just dandy? The Australian government can’t afford to fund services to the needy in health, education, and is doing its darndest to kill clean energy, but is quietly promoting nuclear energy. And not conventional nuclear energy, which is bad enough, but the untested, hugely costly thorium experiment – the same one that was tried and found unviable 50 years ago
ANSTO-SINAP Joint Research Centre, 16 Jan 15 In December 2012, ANSTO signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) for cooperation in the area of materials research and development.
Strong interest from South Australia and Victoria in ACT’s wind energy auction
ACT wind energy auction: And the winners are …. REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 14 January 2015 The ACT government’s wind energy auction has thrown up some surprising winners, and none of the planned 200MW of wind turbines will be built within a bull’s roar of the nation’s capital, if market intelligence is correct. The ACT government advised the winning tenderers of their success just before Christmas, and have until early February to prove that they have the finance in place to build the projects.
The winners have not been publicly announced, and will be kept confidential. But through a process of elimination – i.e. by crossing out those among the 18 project tenders who concede they didn’t make it, there are three likely winners.
They are the Hornsdale wind project in South Australia – regarded as the country’s most prospective wind project because of its excellent wind resources. Industry estimates suggest that the project could be a go-er with a tariff of around $80/MWh…………
The second winner is thought to the small Coonooer Bridge wind project in Victoria. This is owned by Windlab, a spinoff of CSIRO which is based in Canberra. Coonoer is likely to be just 18MW, but will also likely have a level of community ownership through an innovative structure that we discussed here.
The third project is less certain but is thought to be the Ararat project owned by RES, also based in Victoria. It is also bidding for less than half of its nominated capacity of more than 220MW.
The ACT wind energy auction is important to the wind industry in Australia because the sector has been at a standstill for nearly two years. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, no new wind projects were financed in Australia in 2014 because of the Federal government’s attempts to nobble the renewable energy target.
That helped cause an 88 per cent slump in large scale clean energy investment, and pushed Australia down from 11th position to 39th in the world, below Myanmar and Honduras. For some international investors, the ACT auction was considered to be the last hope in Australia, given the uncertainty that continues around the RET.
Contrary to the federal government, which sees its future in coal, the ACT government hopes to source 90 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy sources by 2020. It will do this through a series of auctions – 40MW of large scale solar already completed, an initial run of 200MW of wind, and around 50MW of other large scale solar projects including storage, and 23MW of waste-to-energy projects.
The ACT government raised the prospect of winning tenders going to other states if the price was cheaper, although it did profess to have a strong “local content” component of the tender………….http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/act-wind-energy-auction-and-the-winners-are-25695
Will constitutional recognition really make any difference to Australia’s indigenous people?
Baird calls on states to support Indigenous recognition. But what difference will it make?, Guardian, Celeste Liddle– 15 Jan 15 “……………-If, after consultation, a preamble statement is what we’re left with when we go to vote, then the examples set by the states do not leave me with a great deal of confidence. Why would we believe that federal recognition would lead to a great shift of consciousness and more collaborative and equitable governance based on state records?
Baird may have success convincing other Australian premiers and chief ministers that they need to support constitutional recognition but he is going to have a much harder time convincing the Indigenous electorate. We have a lot of experience of being handed pyrite by politicians dressed up as gold.
While we may have differing views on constitutional recognition across the spectrum, you can be certain we will always question the motives of governments who talk of the importance of our rights on one hand, yet attempt to strip our rights on another. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/15/baird-calls-on-states-to-support-indigenous-recognition-but-what-difference-will-it-make
Pope Francis takes a leadership role for global action on Climate Change
he has been invited by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, to address the general assembly of the UN on the issue.
The impact of this on Australian politics is hard to predict. A number of senior Coalition ministers are Catholic, yet their climate credentials are less than impressive. Tony Abbott’s claim that coal is “good for humanity” is the antithesis of the likely papal message. Now his opponents will be able to quote chapter and verse of a papal encyclical calling his policies into question.
Climate-change encyclical may lay ground for UN progress http://www.
canberratimes.com.au/comment/climatechange-encyclical-may-lay-ground-for-un-progress-20150113-12n3u2.html January 14, 2015 Neil Ormerod This is the year the Catholic Church will join the battle to save the planet; as Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, stated, “2015 could be a decisive year in history”.
From the start of his pontificate Pope Francis indicated his intention to publish an encyclical on the environment. Encyclicals are the most authoritative documents a pope can issue, and it has become increasingly clear that global warming will be its central theme.
Previous popes – both John Paul II and Benedict XVI – referred to the environment and climate change in various communications, and committed the Vatican City to being carbon neutral, but this will be the first time a pope will have dedicated an entire encyclical to it. Continue reading
BHP wants Australian Government to allow bigger radioactive waste dam at Olympic Dam
BHP Billiton wants to increase radioactive waste storage at Olympic Dam, but opponents say leakage rates will rise, SMH, January 12, 2015 – Peter Ker Resources reporter BHP Billiton believes it can increase the amount of radioactive waste being stored in ponds at Olympic Dam without seepage rates rising, under the new development plan for the famous mineral deposit in the South Australian outback.
Continuing the rollout of new plans for the giant uranium, copper and gold mine, BHP has sought permission from the federal government to raise walls around an important waste or “tailings” dam at the mine from 30 metres to 40 metres.
The change would increase the volume of radioactive fluids that can be held in the dam – which is one of four on site – from 48.4 million cubic metres to 64.8 million cubic metres, with the work expected to be complete by September 2023.
Storage of the tailings, which include radioactive materials and acids, has been controversial since Olympic Dam’s previous owner, Western Mining Corporation, confirmed in 1994 that 5 billion cubic metres of the tailings fluids had leaked out of the storages and into an aquifer underground.
Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said increasing the volume of tailings under storage would probably cause more leakage.
“There is no question that increased pressure would add to the chances of increased seepage,” he said.
“We see tailings management as one of the big, unspoken problems with uranium mining. It is an unresolved environmental management problem.”……..
The push to increase the amount of tailings storage comes just months after BHP revealed a new strategy to develop Olympic Dam by putting a heap leach operation at the start of the existing processing cycle.
BHP will conduct a three-year trial of the heap leach concept, before deciding whether it warrants further expansion.
Confirmation of the heap leach trial was the first sign of progress at Olympic Dam since mid 2012, when BHP axed a $30 billion plan to develop the entire Olympic Dam deposit using the world’s biggest open-pit mine.
That $30 billion plan would have required the construction of eight new tailings dams, each requiring a 65-metre-tall embankment, and each covering two square kilometres. http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/bhp-billiton-wants-to-increase-radioactive-waste-storage-at-olympic-dam-but-opponents-say-leakage-rates-will-rise-20150111-12ltwq.html#ixzz3OfOVIn50
Toro Uranium company’s Vanessa Guthrie appointed by Abbot to represent Australia in India n top business group
Toro Energy CEO chosen to represent Australia in India, Australian Mining 12 January, 2015 Vicky Validakis Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appointed the head of uranium developer Toro Energy to the Australia-India CEO forum.
The CEO Forum is a high level business group jointly appointed by Abbott and the Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, to help drive the bilateral economic relationship between Australia and India.
The forum will be made up of 10-15 business leaders who will provide advice to both Prime Ministers on issues of trade, investment and economic development.
It comes after Abbott signalled he was keen to secure a free trade agreement with India this year.
CEO of Toro Energy Vanessa Guthrie said she was “honoured” to accept the appointment……..Guthrie will join Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb in India this week to attend the Australia Business Week in India, an event which promotes Australian opportunities to increase trade and investment markets with the country.
Greens the only Party in Queensland serious about Climate Change
“I think the key thing is that the Greens are the only political party standing in Queensland, giving Queenslanders the opportunity to vote against the expansion of coal seam gas and against the expansion of coal mines and coal ports,” Ms Milne said.
Queensland election: World looking at ‘fossil-fuel free existence’ Brisbane Times 12 Jan 15 Tony Moore brisbanetimes.com.au senior reporter The world is beginning to consider a “fossil-fuel free” existence as soon as 2050, according to Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne.
Ms Milne will join the Queensland state election campaign on Monday having recently returned from a climate summit in Lima, Peru. In the negotiating texts – for the (future) Paris agreement, one of the options is for a fossil-fuel free world by 2050,” Ms Milne said.
The United Nations climate change conference – also attended by Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop – was held in Lima from December 1-12.
The long-serving Greens senator agreed it was “still early days” and the text would most likely be opposed by Australia, Saudi Arabia and other countries before the final United Nations talks in December 2015.
“But the fact that you even have in a negotiating text at this point one of the options being a fossil-fuel free world by 2050 shows you the recognition it is getting,” she said.
“If you are serious about climate science – serious about addressing global warming – then a rapid transition to a renewable energy-powered world is on.”……..
Ms Milne said many people had noticed the decision by several major financial bodies to no longer back more marginal coal projects.
“The rapid growth in the divestment movement has surprised everybody around the world,” Ms Milne said. Continue reading
Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan attacks the Renewable Energy Target
Renewable energy ‘fad’ is our best bet for saving the planet MIKE BRUCE THE COURIER-MAIL JANUARY 11, 2015″…….. those impressionable and impetuous Chinese are spending billions to create the world’s largest renewable power capacity (388GW), dwarfing the US (172GW) and renewables-sector darling Germany (84GW). Those crazy and irrational Germans are now producing almost 30 per cent of their electricity needs with renewable energy.
Excuse the sarcasm, but I couldn’t help it after reading an opinion piece by Matt Canavan, a Nationals senator for Queensland, in which he argues for the abolition of the renewable energy target (RET) in Australia……..
While he is careful not to dismiss renewables per se – despite calling them a “fad” – Canavan strongly implies that Australia’s energy future, at least in the short to medium term, lies in fossil fuels, one of the world’s most heavily subsidised industries.
It’s a surprising position for a National, much of whose constituency is at war with coal and coal-seam interests eating into their land, livelihoods and sustainability.
But, then, this narrative does tally perfectly with the Abbott Government’s stunning reticence to act on climate change. Continue reading
Great timing? Tasmania’s govt attacking freedom of speech
Labor lashes timing of defamation law change DUNCAN ABEY MERCURY JANUARY 12, 2015 NEW corporate defamation laws proposed by the Tasmanian Government represent a direct attack on freedom of speech and will stifle public debate, the Opposition says.
And deputy Labor leader Michelle O’Byrne said the timing could not be worse, in the wake of the deadly attacks on the staff of satirical Paris-based magazine Charlie Hedbo.
“Once again Tasmania is at the front of the national stage for the wrong reasons,” Ms O’Byrne said.
“The State Government wants to bring in legislation around defamation that will mean nobody can ever say anything against a corporation.
“Now this doesn’t just apply to the people the Government says it will target, such as forestry protesters, but it will apply to individuals and it will apply to the media.
“The right to free speech has never been more warmly embraced by the world than after what we have seen in Paris, and for nobody to be ever allowed to say anything negative about a corporation just smacks of silencing dissent.”………….http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/labor-lashes-timing-of-defamation-law-change/story-fnj4f7k1-1227181465484
The psychology behind climate change denialism, (helped by Murdoch media)
Climate change: Why some of us won’t believe it’s getting hotter, SMH January 11, 2015 Peter Martin Economics Editor, The Age What is it about the temperature that some of us find so hard to accept?
The year just ended was one of the hottest on record. In NSW it was the absolute hottest, in Victoria the second-hottest, and in Australia the third hottest………
when it comes to the slowly rising temperature some of us won’t even accept the readings. And that says something about us, or at least about those of us who won’t accept what’s in front of our faces.
I am not prepared to believe that these people are anti-science. Some of them are engineers, some mining company company executives. Like all of us, they depend on science in their everyday lives.
Nor am I prepared to believe they’ve led sheltered lives, although it’s a popular theory. In the United States a survey of six months of coverage on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel found that 37 of its 40 mentions of climate change were misleading.
The misleading coverage included “broad dismissals of human-caused climate change, disparaging comments about individual scientists, rejections of climate science as a body of knowledge, and cherry-picking of data”.
Fox News called global warming a “fraud”, a “hoax” and “pseudo science”.
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal fared little better. 39 of its 48 references were misleading.
In Australia it’s not as bad. Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian gives more space to climate change than any other newspaper. Its articles are 47 per cent negative, 44 per cent neutral and 9 per cent positive, according to the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.
It’s impossible to read The Australian‘s articles without feeling at least a bit curious about climate change.
Another theory is that it’s to do with psychology. Some people are more threatened by bad news than others, making them less able to accept that it’s real.
And now a more sophisticated theory suggests that it’s not about the facts at all. It’s really a debate about the implications, disguised as a debate about the facts. Troy Campbell and Aaron Kay, a researcher and associate professor in neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina find that belief in temperature forecasts is correlated with beliefs about government regulation and what those forecasts would mean for government regulation……..http://www.smh.com.au/comment/climate-change-why-some-of-us-wont-believe-its-getting-hotter-20150110-12koa1.html
Despite Minderoo’s objections, uranium exploration will go ahead on Andrew Forrest’s land in W.A.
West Australian Mines Minister Bill Marmion gave the exploration proposal the go-ahead after the mining warden recommended it be rejected in February 2014.
Mining Warden Kevin Tavener said the application for three exploration permits on Minderoo should be rejected because of the company’s low cash position.
It was a decision that reverberated throughout the industry as junior mining companies typically do not have access to deep cash reserves……..
Forrest’s Minderoo expressed its disappointment at the decision.
“Minderoo is disappointed at the minister’s decision to allow exploration by Cauldron Energy within the historical and environmentally fragile parts of Minderoo station,” a spokesperson said.
“As we have continuously stated on the public record, Minderoo supports development as long as it has no negative impact on the environment, and specifically protects the delicate environment of the Ashburton River.”http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/uranium-exploration-given-the-go-ahead-on-forrest
Andrew Forrest a majority shareholder in uranium company
The deal comes just days after Forrest bought Harvey Beef for a reported $40 million.
The uranium buy came as a surprise to the industry, with spot prices yet to recover to pre-Fukushima levels and dropping as low as US$30.75……..http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/andrew-forrest-invests-in-west-australian-uranium
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 