Gloomy uranium prices. Ranger mine likely to quietly shut down
Spot Uranium Grafting, 9 News Finance, 13 April 12, “………Activity in general remains sluggish, and while two transactions were reported last week in the term market they were both pretty small by term market standards…
..Energy Resources of Australia managed a 5% price increase over the quarter but remains in the 
balance. The company has elected to spend $120m to explore the underground potential at its premier Ranger mine in the northern territory, known as the Ranger Deeps project.
If ERA decides the Deeps is not a commercially viable proposition, Ranger is destined to quietly shut down. Merrills suggests known reserves are unlikely to last beyond this year and stockpiles would be gone in 3-4 years.
Meanwhile, Merrills has ceased coverage of Extract Resources post takeover and its impending de-listing this week.
The broker has also taken the opportunity to review its uranium price forecasts to account for weaker Japanese demand now apparent one year after Fukushima. The analysts’ 2012 spot price forecast falls to US$56.25/lb from US$58.50/lb and 2013 to US$67.50/lb from US$70.00/lb. Merrills’ long term price drops to US$63.00/lb from US$65.00/lb. …
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newscolumnists/greg/8449091/spot-uranium-grafting
Energy Resources of Australia – no decision on new uranium mining until 2014
ERA to wait two years on new uranium, Northern Territory News, ALISON BEVEGE | April 12th, 2012 A DECISION won’t be made on mining an estimated 34,000 tonnes of uranium at a new Territory resource until 2014, uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia has said.
Shareholders caught a ray of hope at ERA’s annual general meeting at SkyCity Casino yesterday after a gloomy 2011 where the company lost $154 million and halted dividends….. The company will begin extensive mapping of the new find this year with construction to begin on a $120 million exploration decline on May 1.
Mr Atkinson said no decision on mining it would be considered for two years. “2014 is to be the year of decisions,” he said….. http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2012/04/12/298551_ntnews.html
ERA’s Ranger uranium mine should be closed down – Australian Conservation Foundation
Meanwhile, the Australian Conservation Foundation is calling for all Ranger operations to end. Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney says there are severe environmental risks associated with the mine.
“Over the course of the history of ERA’s operations, we have seen over 150 publicly documented leaks, spills, accidents and breaches,” he said. “Some of them have been small but some of them have been severe.”
ERA flags future for Ranger uranium despite loss http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-11/ranger-uranium-era-agm/3943640 By Phoebe Stewart, April 11, 2012 Operations at the Ranger facility were closed for five months last year because of extremely wet weather. One of the world’s biggest uranium miners is forecasting a strong future despite reporting a big loss last year. Continue reading
Rural communities like Broken Hill keenly taking up solar energy
Broken Hill embraces solar power, Margaret Paul, ABC News, April 12, 2012 The peak body representing renewable energy in Australia says regional New South Wales is leading the way in terms of the number of households installing solar panels.
The Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Regulator office has released the latest figures which show 19 per cent of properties in Broken Hill have installed solar panels….. Russel Marsh, policy director with the clean energy council, says it is no surprise to see regional areas ranked highly. “Increasingly, the people and the households who are installing solar
panels are not those who live in the urban areas, but those who live in regional areas who tend to be on lower incomes.
“We think that’s because they have the most to gain from installing solar panels on their roof, in terms of the savings they can make on their electricity bill as a result of generating their own electricity from the sun.”….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-12/solar-postcodes/3945504
BHP and South Australian government keen to remove Federal oversight of environmental assessment
Sounds innocuous, doesn’t it? – “streamlining the environmental impact process”
But, it’s exactly this process which threatens to hold up BHP Billiton digging the biggest man made hole in the world, and creating the biggest pile of radioactive waste in the world, while taking up the biggest amount of Australia’s groundwater.
You see, the current legal action against approval for the new Olympic Dam uranium mine hinges on the Federal environmental approval for the mine to go ahead.
Of course BHP Billiton and its lackey South Australian Government would want all environmental control of such huge ventures to be limited to that lackey State. Even though Olympic Dam’ s effects – such as radioactive dust clouds will reach other States and State capital cities.
If Australia’s Federal Government abdicates from its power of environmental jurisdiction over mining, and other big enterprises, it will be open slather for any big corporation with a subservient State Government. – Christina Macpherson
Premiers to slash green tape, inefficient climate schemes, Sydney Morning Herald, Lenore Taylor, Phillip Coorey April 12, 2012 Before today’s first pre-Council of Australian Governments meeting between business leaders, the Prime Minister and the premiers, the federal and state governments indicated the business push to streamline environmental approvals would be endorsed…..
In a joint submission for today’s meeting, the nation’s peak business and industry groups complained the environmental impact process, which involves separate state and federal government assessments, needed to be streamlined…..
The South Australian Labor Premier, Jay Weatherill, who, as the chairman of the Council for the Australian Federation, will represent the state and territory leaders at today’s meeting, welcomed the initiatives proposed by the business groups. He singled out as having ”great merit” the proposal to remove the state-federal jurisdiction from the environmental impact assessment process….
Twenty-six business leaders will attend the meeting, including business group heads and chief executives such as BHP’s Marius Kloppers, Cameron Clyne of the National Australia Bank and Westpac’s Gail Kelly. The business leaders will make recommendations to tomorrow’s COAG meeting. : http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/premiers-to-slash-green-tape-inefficient-climate-schemes-20120411-1wsd7.html#ixzz1rswQiHA7
Danger in Australia hosting USA military bases
If too closely aligned with the US, Australia will be associated with any mistakes. US actions, mounted from Australia, will implicate Australia. In the Cold War US joint intelligence facilities were a target for Soviet nuclear weapons……
Australia needs to be careful that it does not make inevitable the future that it should fear the most. Current decisions are being made without public debate or discussion. Once made they will be difficult to reverse.
We must not get too close to the US, BY: PETER LEAHY The Australian April 12, 2012 “……. there can be too much of a good thing, especially if it involves putting unnecessary pressure on China. By substantially increasing its
close relationship with the US, Australia may unduly complicate its relationship with China. Care needs to be taken to ensure that Australia is not caught between the US, as security guarantor, and China as economic underwriter.
As a sovereign nation Australia should maintain the ability to say no to the US and separate itself from its actions. This will require careful thought and deft diplomacy……By agreeing to the US Marine Corps and potentially more extensive air and naval access requests, Australia has confirmed that it is firmly in the US security camp……. Continue reading
Australia’s Energy Minister pushes for government spying on behalf of energy companies
Protests against coalmining so far have been peaceful. Resources and Energy Department briefings show that only four protests have interfered briefly with electricity generation.
ASIO eyes green groups, The Age, Philip Dorling, April 12, 2012 AUSTRALIA’S leading counter-terrorism agency has been providing intelligence to the federal government on environmental groups that campaign against coalmining.
Greens leader Bob Brown said yesterday it was ”intolerable that the Labor government was spying on conservation groups” and condemned the ”deployment of ASIO as a political weapon” against peaceful protests……
ASIO is exempt from freedom of information laws and is described on
its website as ”the only agency in the Australian intelligence community authorised in the normal course of its duties to undertake investigations into the activities of Australian persons”. Other FOI documents confirm that Mr Ferguson pressed then attorney-general Robert McClelland in September 2009 to see whether ”the
intelligence-gathering services of the Australian Federal Police” could be used to help energy companies handle increasing activity by coalmining protesters….. Continue reading
Warren Mundine – the nuclear industry’s Aboriginal puppet
Mundine’s claim to support Aboriginal empowerment is contradicted by his consistent failure to speak out when mining and nuclear interests and governments that support those interests disempower Aboriginal people.
Warren Mundine’s nuclear allegiances. Online opinion, By Jim Green , 11 April 2012 Warren Mundine, a member and former National President of the ALP, and co-convener of the Australian Uranium Association’s Indigenous Dialogue Group, has been promoting the nuclear industry recently. Unfortunately he turns a blind eye to the industry’s crude racism, a problem that ought to be core business for the Indigenous Dialogue Group.
Mundine could have mentioned the legacy of uranium mining in the Wiluna region of WA; to pick one of many examples. Uranium exploration in the region in the 1980s left a legacy of pollution and contamination. Greatly elevated radiation levels have been recorded despite the area being ‘cleaned’ a decade ago. Even after the ‘clean up’, the site was left with rusting drums containing uranium ore. A sign reading “Danger − low level radiation ore exposed” was found lying face down in bushes. Continue reading
Australia’s uranium promoters working hard against the reality of falling profits
Uranium bulls have spent much of the past 12 months arguing there is a serious disconnect between the way the sharemarket and short-term investors view the outlook for uranium and the way long-term industry players (the CGNPCs and Rios of the world, for example) see it.
No sweeteners for yellowcake players, The West, Kate Emery April 11, 2012, A little over a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster and despite endlessly positive outlook statements from the uranium industry, the fact remains it’s a still a tough time to be in the yellowcake business. Continue reading
Decline in Ranger uranium mine’s production, profit and morale – time to close it down
ERA tightens 2012 guidance, Colin Jacoby , 10 April 2012 …The uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia reported production of 612 tonnes of uranium oxide for the March quarter, down 41% from its December 2011 quarter production of 1030t.. The company was dogged by high rainfall at Ranger and access to high-grade ore was restricted due to the water level in the pit.
With ERA unable to access the high-grade ore located at the bottom of the pit, the ore milled during the quarter was sourced from stockpiled material. … the company said 2012 production remained highly dependent on the level of rainfall for the remainder of the year.
Kakadu uranium miner faces growing criticism. ACF, 11 April 12, Mining at the troubled Ranger uranium operation in Kakadu has been described as dirty, dangerous and desperate by the Environment Centre NT and the Australian Conservation Foundation. The groups have used Energy Resources of Australia annual meeting today in Darwin to re-affirm their concerns about uranium mining inside the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park.
”ERA’s open cut mine has seen over 150 leaks, spills and breaches; radioactive exposure to workers; mismanagement of water and a mine shutdown that resulted in a $150 million dollar loss last year. The mine continues to pose ongoing environmental risk to Kakadu and the creation of more unwanted and poorly managed radioactive waste,” said Environment Centre NT campaigner Cat Beaton.
“Much of that waste is stored in an overloaded tailings dam that continues to leak over 100,000 litres of contaminated water a day.” Continued Ms Beaton.
In recent years ERA’s controversial Ranger mine has been plagued by declining production, morale and profit, with operations severely impacted by severe weather events. The company is attempting to reverse this decline by moving away from open cut mining in favour of underground mining.
“ERA’s fortunes are in systemic decline and will not be turned around by a tunnel to nowhere,” said ACF nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney. “In the shadow of Fukushima – which we know was fuelled by Australian uranium – we need an open assessment of the costs and consequences of the uranium trade, not piecemeal approvals of short term projects that generate long term risks and problems”. “Uranium mining is unclean and unsafe, and this industry remains contaminating and contested”. Concluded Mr. Sweeney.
Brain cancer risk from overuse of dental X rays
Dental x-rays linked to brain tumours, ABC News, 10 April 12, People who get regular dental x-rays are more likely to suffer a type of brain tumour, according to new research, suggesting that yearly exams may not be best for most patients. The study in the US journal Cancer showed people diagnosed with meningioma who reported having a yearly bitewing exam were 1.4 times to 1.9 times as likely as a healthy control group to have developed such tumours.
A bitewing exam involves an x-ray film being held in place by a tab between the teeth. Also, people who reported getting a yearly panorex exam – in which an x-ray is taken outside the mouth and shows all the teeth on one film – were 2.7 to three times more likely to develop cancer, said the study.
A meningioma is a tumour that forms in the membrane around the brain or spinal cord. Most of the time these tumours are benign and slow growing, but they can lead to disability or life-threatening conditions. The research, led by Elizabeth Claus of the Yale University School of Medicine, was based on data from 1433 US patients who were diagnosed with the tumours between the ages of ages 20 and 79 years. For comparison, researchers consulted data from a control group of 1350 individuals who had similar characteristics but had not been diagnosed with a meningioma.
Dental patients today are exposed to lower radiation levels than they were in the past, but the research should prompt dentists and patients to re-examine when and why dental x-rays are given, says Claus. “The study presents an ideal opportunity in public health to increase awareness regarding the optimal use of dental x-rays, which unlike many risk factors is modifiable,” she says……
Associate Professor Matthew Hopcraft of the University of Melbourne Dental School says there are no strict guidelines regarding dental x-rays in Australia. “Dentists in Australia would normally do a risk assessment for their patients … weighing up the risk of disease versus the risk of potential harm from radiation from the x-rays,” says Hopcraft. He says most patients would undergo one x-ray every one or two years, while a patient with a high risk from tooth decay would need one every six months. Hopcraft says improvements in radiographic equipment has seen the dosage rate received by patients undergoing an x-ray reduce over time.
“We’ve moved a lot in Australian practice towards digital radiography from traditional film and that’s allowed the dosage of radiation to decrease significantly as a consequence.” http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/10/3474085.htm
Murdoch press ‘informs’ public opinion on climate change
negative articles about the proposed carbon emissions tax in Murdoch’s newspapers outweighed positive ones
82 percent to 18 percent.
AUDIO How Murdoch’s Aussie Papers Cover Climate Change, NPR News by DAVID 
FOLKENFLIK April 6, 2012 “…..[journalist Wendy] Bacon delved into her own harvest: the results of a case study about how the country’s newspapers handled a pressing and contentious issue.
Bacon, a professor of journalism at the University of Technology in Sydney, commissioned researchers and graduate students to examine six months’ worth of every article, feature piece, editorial and columns in 10 leading Australian papers on a proposal by the governing Labor Party to tax carbon emissions.
“What our study showed is that the majority of Australians are not getting a balanced or diverse view on a policy which was designed — at least in a small way — to tackle this problem,” Bacon said.
Seven of the 10 papers studied were part of News Corp.’s Australian newspaper arm, News Limited. The overwhelming majority of newspapers sold in the country are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s company. With such dominance of the press, the Murdoch papers draw careful scrutiny of how they cover sensitive issues. Continue reading
Australia investing in nuclear weapons, while piously preaching against them
The difficulty for the Australian government is that Julia Gillard was just in South Korea at a global Nuclear weapons conference claiming Australia is a leader in global efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. …
for the Australian government’s own Future Fund to be simultaneously investing in nuclear weapons manufacturers surely undermines Australia’s chances of advancing such goals.
Your taxes hard at work making mushroom clouds, The Punch, James Norman, 7 April 12, “…..Following a freedom-of-information (FOI) request from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) the Australian Future Fund disclosed to the Senate last year that it invests Australian taxpayers’ (often pension funds) money in 14 companies involved in the production and maintenance of nuclear weapons.
The total value of these holdings in nuclear weapons-related companies is approximately $133 million, while the overall value of the Future Fund’s investments is $73 billion. The 14 nuclear weapons companies in its portfolio are involved in the design, production and maintenance of nuclear weapons for the US, British, French and Indian governments.
The companies in question that are involved in the manufacture or deployment of nuclear weapons include Babcock International ($127,480), Boeing (over $6 million), Honeywell International ($97 Million), Rockweel Collins (over $15 million) and Rolls Royce (over $1.7 million). Continue reading
Climate denialism book sent to hundreds of Australian schools
Teachers, scientists slam IPA for sending Plimer book to schools Crikey.com, by Matthew Knott, 7 April 12, Scientists and teachers have accused free market think tank The Institute of Public Affairs of spreading scientific disinformation by sending copies of Ian Plimer’s latest book to hundreds of schools around the country.
Plimer’s tome, How to Get Expelled from School: a guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters, argues that the theory of man-made global warming is a….. http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/04/05/teachers-scientists-slam-ipa-for-sending-plimer-book-to-schools/
Photovoltaic solar energy boom in Australia benefits rural and low income communities
Love of a sunburnt country a boon for solar set http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/love-of-a-sunburnt-country-a-boon-for-solar-set-20120406-1wgtn.html#ixzz1rNtGo1ee 7 April 12, THE humble city of Dubbo has emerged as the solar power capital of Australia, with more than a quarter of the houses in one postcode generating their own electricity from rooftop panels.
Even as subsidies are slashed, data shows the boom in photovoltaic solar panel continues.
The breakdown of solar use by postcode shows a clear bias towards regional Australia and city suburbs with lower-than-average incomes, industry body the Clean Energy Council says. ”Solar panels are fast becoming the Hills Hoist of the 21st century,” the council’s acting chief executive, Kane Thornton, said. Continue reading
1 This month
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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about
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PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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