Australian uranium companies’ share price tumble
Uranium Companies, Bloomberg, by Shani Raja, 2 July 2011, Mining companies sank as an index of metals traded in London dropped 3 percent through June 30, driven by reports showing that manufacturing growth in China, the U.S. and Europe slowed in May. Speculation that rising inflation may prompt Chinese authorities to raise interest rates cut the shares.
Uranium miners Paladin Energy Ltd. (PDN) and Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. (ERA)tumbled more than 30 percent as the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant continued to roil the global nuclear-energy market. Paladin’s valuation, at 1.6 times its assets, has fallen so much it may become a takeover target, Citigroup Inc. said in a June 21 report…… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/australia-stocks-post-first-quarterly-loss-in-year-as-oil-prices-retreat.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/australia-stocks-post-first-quarterly-loss-in-year-as-oil-prices-retreat.html
Solar power for Queensland’s Sunshine Coast
Australia’s Sunshine Coast gives green light to 10MW PV plant Recharge, 30 June 11 Energy Parks Australia (EPA) has been given the go-ahead to build one of the country’s largest solar plants – a 10MW facility on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. The A$40m ($43m) project – the first of what the company hopes will be a pipeline of six – was approved by the Sunshine Coast Regional CouncilThe 50 hectare site on former sugar-cane land at Valdora, about 125km north of Brisbane, may include a biofuel plant alongside the PV installation.
EPA is looking for domestic and international investors to back the project.
The solar facility would be one of the biggest in Australia, apart from the utility-scale projects announced earlier this month under the government’s Solar
Flagships programme…. http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/solar/article264517.ece
Western Australian Labor Party maintains policy against uranium mining
at the Labor state conference this week there was an attempt to weaken the Labor position
against uranium mines- to accept uranium mines that may be approved…
This motion was voted down with strength. There was Jon Ford – shadow
mines minister, Dave Kelly- secretary for the miscellanious union and
Steve Mc cartney from the AMWU. This has sent a really clear message
to uranium miners that there is no social license to operate and has
cast further doubt on the uranium industry
Koongarra now a World Heritage National Park – and not an Areva uranium mine
Koongarra makes world heritage listing ABC News Jun 28, 2011 After more than 30 years, a uranium-rich piece of Aboriginal land near Kakadu National Park has been added to the World Heritage List. The 1,228-hectare site, known as Koongarra, was added to the register during a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris. The French nuclear energy company Areva, which owns mining licences in the area, had unsuccessfully asked the committee to remove Koongarra from its agenda.
Koongarra is important Aboriginal land but was originally excluded from the park in 1979 because of its potential uranium resources.
Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Don Henry says it is the end of a long fight to protect it from uranium mining. “Kakadu is beloved by many Australians,” he said. “This is right beside the famous Nourlangie Rock area and it’s a great tribute to Jeffrey Lee, the traditional owner who’s called for its protection to look after his own country, but it’s a great gift for all Australians.” Environment Minister Tony Burke welcomed the decision, saying it will help protect Koongarra for generations to come. There are some legal steps the Government will need to finalise before Koongarra is officially included as part of Kakadu National Park. It means the area will be fully protected under law and mining prohibited……http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/28/3255045.htm?site=news
Lord Monckton and Tony Abbott speakers at mining companies’ conference
The British peer is scheduled to speak at the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) conference in Perth next week. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who met Lord Monckton last year, will also address the AMEC conference along with independent MP Rob Oakeshott and Liberal Senator Mathias Cormann.
Monckton compares Garnaut to Hitler ABC News 23 June 11 A British politician has called the Australian Government’s chief climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, a fascist. Footage has been posted on the internet of a speech Lord Christopher Monckton gave to a conference in Los Angeles earlier this month. In it he displayed a Nazi swastika next to a quote from Professor Garnaut.
Lord Monckton compared statements made by Adolf Hitler to Professor Garnaut’s suggestion that people should accept the mainstream science of climate change. Continue reading
AUSTRALIA’S ROLE IN THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER
John Ritch – ….believes that the Fukushima disaster is simply a lot of fuss over the flooding of a few diesel generators – is one who is pushing for Australia to take the world’s waste…..Halliburton built the railway link between Alice Springs and Darwin and the railway line is managed by Serco, a UK nuclear waste disposal and transport expert. There is little traffic on the line
Fukushima disaster, cover-up and fears of nuclear explosion Independent Australia 20 June 11 Environment correspondent Sandi Keaneprovides detailed up-to-date analysis on the Fukushima nuclear disaster, including an exclusive interview with Dr Helen Caldicott. Experts raise the grim possibility of nuclear explosion at the disintegrating plant.
“……….And what of Australia’s role in this global catastrophe? No meaningful dialogue about the morality of the nuclear experiment can occur without questioning our export of uranium, which, no doubt, ended up at Fukushima.
We may be one of the world’s biggest exporters, but did you know that we earned more selling cheese in 2010 than uranium? Check it out with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Continue reading
Northern Territory Liberal Party all for French nuclear company against Aboriginal landowner
Mr Lee, a member of the Djok clan and senior custodian of the land known as Koongarra, could have become one of
Australia’s richest men if he had decided to allow Areva to extract the estimated 14,000 tonnes of uranium from its 12.5 square kilometre mineral lease in the area.
NT Opposition supports French bid to mine uranium ABC News 21 June 11 The Northern Territory Opposition says it supports the commercial right of French nuclear energy company Areva to mine an area near Kakadu National Park. By Bridget Brennan and Jano Gibson, 21 June 11
Areva had planned to establish a uranium mine in a small area called Koongarra, but traditional owner Jeffrey Lee has donated the area to the Commonwealth.
The Federal Government now wants to include Koongarra in world-heritage-listed Kakadu. Continue reading
Swap your BHP shares: rooftop solar is a better investment
Rooftop Solar Power A Better Investment Than Shares, Renewable Energy News by Energy Matters 20 June 11 An independent think tank believes Australian retirees investing in solar power will find it a more profitable investment than BHP Billiton shares and safer than bank shares.
Writing for the Australian Financial Review, David Hetherington, Executive Director of independent progressive think tank Per Capita, says new “solar plus storage” technology for homes and small businesses offers a way for retirees and others to future proof against rapidly escalating electricity costs. Continue reading
Community wind power to the people of Hepburn, Victoria
Australian community wind delivers power to the people Recharge 22 June 11 Community wind farms are no stranger to the US — where the sector is comparable to the size of the entire Australian commercial wind industry. But Australia has been slow to jump on the community bandwagon. Low-cost electricity generated from the country’s vast coal and gas reserves provides real challenges to the economics, while connecting windy but often remote regions to the national grid is difficult and expensive.
Enter the pioneers of the Hepburn Wind Park — Australia’s first co-operative wind farm, about 100km northwest of Melbourne, Victoria.
Commissioned this week, nearly four years after the co-operative was registered, Hepburn’s two 2MW turbines now supply enough electricity to power 2,300 homes — 300 more than are in the area.
The community-owned project moved from dream to reality in April last year, when Germany’s REpower signed a contract to build the wind farm, and a final offer for 1.8 million shares was released. Continue reading
35,000 Western Australian homes to get wind energy
GE’s wind technology enters Western Australia, Industrial Fuels and Power June 21st, 2011 by IFandP Newsroom A consortium including GE and Australian firm Leighton Contractors has received a US$130m contract to supply and install 22 GE 2.5-100 wind turbines for the Mumbida Wind Farm. Located 40km southeast of Geraldton, marks the entry of GE in the Australia/New Zealand region.
A 50/50 partnership between Western Australia-owned utility Verve Energy and Macquarie Capital, the Mumbida Wind Farm will generate 55MW of renewable energy for the South West Interconnected System, enough to eliminate 165,000t of greenhouse gases annually and supply power to around 35,000 homes…….http://www.ifandp.com/article/0011718.html
Economic sense for BHP to pull out of Western Australian uranium mining
“Australian uranium exporters and investors are uniquely vulnerable to the volatile and unpredictable nuclear industry that has never lived upto the promises it has made in the past,” ….. “The nuclear renaissance is dead. The nuclear industry was in enormous trouble well before the disaster at the Fukushima complex…IAEA report on safety of Lynas rare earths will be slanted in favour of the company
“How can we monitor daily? The risks of human error are too high,” she said, pointing out that the half-life of thorium was 14 billion years…..Fuziah promised that if the report from the panel, which includes members of the IAEA, was as she anticipated, she will continue to bring the issue to a higher level and exert pressure on authorities.
No confidence in Lynas safety review’, Free Malaysia Today Tashny Sukumaran, June 20, 2011, The IAEA report on the Lynas Corp is bound to be slanted and the human factor will not be taken into account, says Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh. KUALA LUMPUR: Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh is already second guessing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) report on the Lynas Corp’s rare earth refinery in Gebeng, Pahang.
She said she has no confidence in the independent panel’s safety review of the RM300 million Lynas Corp rare earth refinery . “I can imagine the outcome will contain acknowledgement of safety concerns, but also on how this refinery can be made safe,” said Fuziah. Continue reading
Lynas Rare Earths Plant – Profits for Australian Company, Radioactive Wastes For Malaysia
The refinery will produce about 230,000 tonnes of solid waste a year. The waste, containing radioactive thorium and a range of heavy metals and toxic substances, will be dumped in Malaysia…..“This whole Lynas deal has been done in a very non-transparent way,” he said. “They’ve already made a deal to bring this ore from Australia to refine here in Malaysia, then export the rare earths, then keep the waste here….Malaysian government had given Lynas a 12-year tax-free status.
Malaysians resist Oz company’s toxic plan .Green Left By Peter Boyle, Kuala Lumpur, 21 June 11, Public opposition to a plan by an Australian mining company, Lynas, to build a rare earth refinery in Pahang, Malaysia, was on show at a protest outside Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on May 20.Saturday, June 18, 2011 Lynas plans to ship ore from its Mount Weld mine in Western Australia, through the port of Fremantle, to Malaysia. There it will be refined to extract rare earths, which are widely used in the manufacture of computers and electronics. Continue reading
BHP Billiton moving senior staff away from Yeelirrie uranium project
Query on Yeelirrie after BHP moves PETER KLINGER, The West Australian, June 20, 2011, A fortnight after admitting it had put the Yeelirrie environmental approvals process on hold, BHP Billiton is understood to have begun dismantling the senior management team charged with overseeing WA’s biggest uranium development.
The miner is under enormous pressure from investors to find and develop projects that will make a material difference to its top and bottom linesComplicating the matter for BHP is that development of Yeelirrie would create significant political and community backlash in WA, where there is vocal opposition to uranium mining, in return for only modest financial rewards for the world’s biggest miner…..http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/-/wa/9669593/query-on-yeelirrie-after-bhp-moves/
BHP Billiton looks like pulling out of Yeelirie uranium mining
“the nuclear industry is increasingly unpopular and unprofitable and BHP Billiton has seen the writing on the wall for the uranium trade in WA”.
BHP’s Yeelirrie doubts reflect high risk and low return from uranium mining, 20 June 11, WA’s peak environment group today welcomed news that BHP Billiton’s Yeelirrie uranium mining project is indefinitely on hold, with growing speculation that BHP will pull out of the project altogether. Continue reading
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