Flooding in Paladin and Rio Tinto uranium mines in Namibia
Namibia Q2 uranium production down | Industrial Fuels and Power August 30th, 2011 Uranium production in Namibia decreased from 2.35mlb to 2.09mlb in the second quarter of 2011 when compared with the previous quarter.“This was largely due to adverse weather conditions, with some of the mines becoming flooded with the abnormally heavy rains seen this year,” financial group Capricorn Investment Holdings said.Namibia’s uranium is produced by Rio Tinto and Australia’s Paladin Energy.
Namibia Q2 uranium production down | Industrial Fuels and Power
Big loss for uranium miner Paladin miner , and fall in share price
Paladin Energy Q4 loss widens to US$47.7M, The Canadian Press08/31/2011 PERTH, Australia – Paladin Energy Ltd (TSX:PDN), an Australia-based miner that lists on the TSX, cited higher financing costs Wednesday among reasons for a widening of its fourth-quarter and full-year loss.
Paladin Energy, which reports in U.S. dollars, said its after-tax loss for the three months ended June 30 was US$47.7 million or 6.3 cents per share, compared with a loss of US$25.2 million or 3.5 cents in the same year-earlier period….profits were affected an impairment of inventory expense of US$26.4 million at the company’s Kayelekera mine due to higher operating costs during ramp-up and the lower prevailing uranium spot price since last March’s earthquake-induce nuclear disaster in Japan.
The company also faced an earlier, US$6.3-million early buyback of convertible bonds. On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Paladin Energy shares were down nine cents at $2.16 at midday Wednesday.
Uranium miner Paladin calling for more money to be invested
More uranium investment needed, says Paladin CEO, Mining Weekly, 31st August 2011 PERTH − Uranium miner Paladin Energy CEO John Borshoff said that more investment was needed the uranium sector, as supply and demand dynamics would become more strained.
“Discoveries of new deposits have to be made, exploration and high-risk capital needs to be sunk into these programmes, because these programmes determine the long-term future of the mining industry,” Borshoff told delegates at the Africa Downunder conference in Perth on Wednesday…..
“Uranium is still suffering from the impact of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the parallel damage to the Fukushima nuclear reactors. The supply sector and the nuclear industry have suffered a bruising effect from this event…
Victoria’s Liberal Government kills off the future for the wind industry
The Clean Energy Council estimates the decision will kill off around $3 billion of potential wind farm developments. …Victoria’s decision removes some of the best wind resources in the eastern states.
What bothers the industry most about the Victorian decision is that the government has refused to explain its rationale and the analysis behind the rulings, or why they have not been applied to other industries, such as coal seam gas. The government is accused of delivering on all of the demands of the anti-wind groups, and more, despite the fact that many of its claims had been dismissed in the recent Senate wind inquiry
Have we blown the RET? Climate Spectator, Giles Parkinson, 30 Aug 11, “….Victoria’s imposition of a 2km setback for wind farms (giving the right of veto to any householder within that area), to exclude vast tracts of the best resources (the prettiest areas along the coast near the Great Ocean Road, the Mornington Peninsula, the Yarra Valley, and Mt Macedon ranges), and an unexpected addition – a 5km setback from 21 regional centres – means that options in that state are fast running out. Continue reading
Uranium company sells Australian projects
Uranex sells Australian uranium assets, Channel 9 News, 24 Aug 11,”……The Melbourne-based uranium explorer on Tuesday said the projects, including Thatcher Soak in Western Australia and Alligator Rivers in the Northern Territory, were being sold to a “Chinese based investment group”.
Uranex plans to focus on its uranium and coal assets in Tanzania, a spokesman said.
The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals including the Foreign Investment Review Board.
“We are confident the Australian uranium projects will successfully progress towards production and further opportunities will be created through our alliance,” Uranex managing director Matthew Gauci said in a statement.
The Chinese party holds the first right of refusal for the sale of any other Uranex tenements in Australia.
Silex, a supposedly solar company deeply involved in the nuclear industry
progress hinges on a world-leading uranium processing method called laser enrichment.
The technology has been acquired by a heavy-hitting US consortium of nuclear companies, Global Laser Enrichment, which has completed a testing program.
(repeating this item, lest we forget Australia’s involvement – C.M.)
Heavy weather for nation’s solitary solar-panel maker, The Australian, TIM BOREHAM , July 18, 2011 AS the head of Australia’s only solar-panel maker, Silex Systems’ Michael Goldsworthy sticks to script and welcomes the pending carbon tax and accompanying billion-dollar renewable subsidy programs that will benefit companies such as Silex….. Continue reading
Pro uranium spin revs up, in Australia and USA
Toro Energy to commence regional public information days for Wiluna uranium project Proactive investors, August 10, 2011 Toro Energ will begin the public information days on the Wiluna uranium project in regional Western Australia on August 15.
Uranium Safe to Eat With a Spoon!, OpEd News.com by David Swanson, 11 Aug 11, Carefully ignoring Fukushima, Los Alamos, Vermont, and Nebraska, a comforting new announcement informs us that “nuclear energy is safe.” A series of soothing television ads and videostells us that mining uranium in Virginia would produce jobs and protect us from scary foreigners.
Virginia newspapers carried an article from theAssociated Press this week that did not pretend to be anything but one-sided, reporting on the agenda of corporations that would profit from mining uranium while including no other views or any verified facts. The Washington Post did the very same thing. These articles are essentially press releases that have been tweaked. The online versions even include the videos.
We can expect even less actual news reporting than that (yes, less than nothing) to come through our televisions. But these ads hyping uranium mining as a job solution will be aired. And the television networks will consequently view the mining corporations as customers not to be needlessly offended or inconvenienced……
Thousands of years of danger, to provide what the uranium mining companies claim might be 65 years of uranium use. That seems like the kind of deal only a U.S. president could consider a bargain. Let’s hope Virginia still has more life left in it than Washington. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Uranium-Safe-to-Eat-With-a-by-David-Swanson-110809-895.html
Alexander Downer’s plan for a radioactive South Australia
You’ve got to hand it to former Liberal MP Alexander Downer. In a week when everyone else is respectfully remembering the Japanese victims of Hiroshima and Fukushima, – or at least tactfully shutting up about Australia’s involvement in the nuclear industry there – Downer comes out with blatant marketing of the nuclear industry. – C.M.
Downer: Nuclear power makes cents – Alexander Downer, The Advertiser, August 01, 2011“…..we could build a nuclear power station. Just imagine replacing the Northern power station at Port Augusta with a nuclear power station which would be pollution free. The uranium would come from just up the road at Olympic Dam, it could be enriched at a new enrichment plant at, say, Whyalla, the waste could be stored at the world’s safest location for long-term storage, near Woomera…..
To me, it all makes perfect sense.
If we were really ambitious, we would use these facilities to make the world a safer place….”
ERA scraps acid leach uranium project, but reluctant to close unprofitable Ranger mine
“ERA should be planning a comprehensive clean up of the mine site and beginning an ordered and managed exit from Ranger.”
Kakadu uranium miner scraps acid extraction project, but wants to go underground, Dave Sweeney, 4 August 11, Energy Resources of Australia’s decision to scrap its plan to use a controversial acid leach mining technique at the troubled Ranger uranium mine in Kakadu is an instance of belated commonsense, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today.
ERA has confirmed it will not proceed with a planned mine expansion based around acid leaching, in which sulphuric acid is injected into low grade and waste rock. Continue reading
Energy Resources of Australia makes a loss due to Ranger uranium mine
ERA reports H1 loss because of rain. SMH, August 4, 2011 Shares in Energy Resources of Australia slumped almost six per cent as the uranium miner posted a first half loss after suspending operations at its Ranger Mine on above average rainfall.
The company posted a net loss of $121.75 million for the six months to June 30 compared with a profit of $22.68 million a year earlier, Darwin-based ERA said in a statement on Thursday…..
Volatility in the spot price of uranium oxide was likely to continue until the nuclear situation in Japan became clearer and the outcomes of the safety reviews of nuclear power facilities in China were released….
The company plans to conduct an expanded exploration program on the Ranger Project area between 2012 and 2014 at an estimated cost of $40 million.
Earnings per share were negative 63.8 cents, compared with positive 11.9 cents a year earlier.
ERA directors decided not to declare an interim dividend for the 2011 financial year, after an interim dividend of eight cents per share the year before. No final dividend was paid for 2010…http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/era-reports-h1-loss-because-of-rain-20110804-1icgg.html
Poor uranium market puts Olympic Dam uranium mining future in doubt
BHP likely to stall Olympic Dam plans: report, Business Spectator, 28 Jul 2011 Analysts are predicting that BHP Billiton Ltd will delay uranium production at the Olympic Dam mine expansion in South Australia as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan and ensuing uncertainty about the future of nuclear energy, according to The Australian.
Olympic Dam, home to the world’s largest known uranium deposit, is scheduled to be expanded beginning next year as part of a $US20 billion-plus ($A18.4 billion) expansion that is subject to company and government approval.
However, plans to boost uranium production by a third from current levels may be halted as uranium demand continues to weaken in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster…..http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/BHP-likely-to-stall-Olympic-Dam-plans-report-pd20110727-K6QRR?OpenDocument&src=hp9
Clean Energy Finance Corporation a business plus for Australia
…Far from being a slush fund for the ALP, the proposed CEFC would be a commercially-minded independent authority enabling Australian businesses to commercialise and deploy Aussie renewable energy innovations…..The CEFC is a critical institution for driving Australia’s long-term reductions in emissions at least cost with maximum economic benefit. …
Why we need the Clean Energy Finance Corporation CEFC, Climate Spectator, Simon O’Connor. 22 July 11“……The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) has enabled Australian businesses to overcome financial barriers to doing business by bridging market gaps the commercial banks dared not bridge.
Far from being a risky strategy, this commercially-oriented authority has delivered to government dividends totalling more than $100 million in the last decade. Continue reading
Fukushima ‘incident’ makes nuclear industry safer, says Paladin chief
He said the Fukushima incident in Japan had been nothing more than a smokescreen obscuring the positive underlying fundamentals of the industry.A positive side to the Fukushima incident, where there were no deaths despite alarmist reports, was that it will make the industry even safer
Paladin Energy CEO delivers broadside against Greens Party, A leading Australian uranium industry figure fired a broadside at the country’s Greens Party which has pushed a case that Australia could be run totally on renewable energy by 2040. Ross Louthean, Mineweb 21 Jul 2011 PERTH – –
Speaking in the last session of the Australian Uranium Conference in Fremantle this evening, Paladin Energy Ltd’s chief executive John Borshoff described the case made by the country’s Greens Party that Australia could be run totally on renewable enrergy by 2040 as stupid. Continue reading
Australia’s Commonwealth Bank joins in the Murdoch press’s pro-nuclear marketing hype
Long-term contract prices are forecast to move steadily higher, following upward-trending spot prices and consistent with production increasing and shifting up the industry cost curve, the bank said….
Fukushima Accident Delays, Doesn’t Stop, Nuclear Renaissance -CBA, Fox News, By Ray Brindal, July 20, 2011,CANBERRA – The accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, which reignited concerns about the safety of nuclear power worldwide, hasn’t stopped the industry’s growth plans in many countries, though it has delayed the process, Commonwealth Bank of Australia reported Wednesday. Continue reading
Australia’s gas industry a lesser evil than uranium and nuclear power
As one who cares about the environment, I am reluctant to enthuse about LNG. However, the facts must be faced. In this over-populated world, with developing countries wanting material prosperity – energy use is escalating. And Australia is an energy exporter.
Nuclear energy’s real promise for the future is global and permanent pollution, epidemic cancer, escalating war and terrorism risk – increasing fear, danger, and suppression of civil liberties.
Liquified Natural Gas has its own threats of environmental damage, and erosion of civil liberties (especially for farming communities).
Until the world swings properly to energy conservation and renewables, LNG presents itself as a lesser evil, and as one more piece of compelling evidence that Australia does not need nuclear power, nor uranium mining. – Christina Macpherson
Gas boom could put us on top of the world: Woodside’s Michael Hession, THE AUSTRALIAN, RICK WALLACE, TOKYO CORRESPONDENT , July 20, 2011 AUSTRALIA could become the world’s largest exporter of LNG, the head of Woodside’s Browse Basin project told a major energy conference in Japan yesterday.
Woodside’s Michael Hession said Australia was poised to become the second-largest exporter behind Qatar, and was ideally placed to meet the soaring demand being driven by Asian growth and the shift away from nuclear power in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
The conference heard a range of bullish predictions on the future of Australia’s LNG industry, including the assessment from Australian government forecaster Jane Melanie that “what we are expecting to see is nothing less than a gas revolution”….. Dr Hession said the trend away from nuclear power in Japan and other countries would fuel this demand even more....http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/gas-boom-could-put-us-on-top-of-the-world-woodsides-michael-hession/story-e6frg9df-1226097870716
1 This month
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