Multi $billion company BHP and Australian Government out to punish Aboriginal elder who dared to oppose uranium mine
DEMOCRACY AT A PRICE: DECISION BY BHP BILLITON AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO SEEK COSTS FROM ARABUNNA ELDER PUNITIVE AND VINDICTIVE, 1st May 2012 The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) is deeply concerned by the decision of BHP Billiton and the Federal Government to seek costs from Arabunna elder uncle Kevin Buzzacott arising from his challenge of the Federal approval of the Olympic Dam expansion.“ANFA members fully support Uncle Kevin and admire his stand for country. We know that history will be the fairest judge of this struggle. BHP and the minister who approved the expansion of Olympic Dam will be forever linked to the toxic legacy of this mine, for thousands of years to come,” said Larrakia woman Donna Jackson, co-chair of ANFA.
“The court decided that Kevin Buzzacott had standing to pursue this challenge, as is his right under both the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act and the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act,” said ANFA Committe member Nectaria Calan. “Where does this leave the right to judicial review of such projects if those who seek such a review are then punished with costs?”
Dean Della Vale, president of BHP’s Uranium Customer Sector Group which is responsible for the Olympic Dam project, is a founding member of the Australian Uranium Associations Indigenous Dialogue Group, established to facilitate dialogue with traditional owners.
“BHP pursuing costs undermines any claims by the Indigenous Dialogue Group that they are seeking to engage with aboriginal communities in good faith. Aboriginal communities do not have the right to say no to mining on their land, and here we have an elder using one of the few legal options available to them to ensure that at least the impacts of the project were properly considered, and they may be facing a massive bill for doing so,” said Ms Calan.
“The message BHP are sending is that there are repercussions for taking on the mining giant. Last financial year the company recorded a total net profit of US$23. 95 billion – they certainly don’t need the money,” Ms Calan concluded.
ACF calls on Australian government to stop selling uranium for nuclear weapons
Chernobyl anniversary: Time for Australian government action on uranium, 28 April 12, On the anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident the Australian Conservation Foundation has called on the federal government to improve nuclear safety and stop literally fuelling nuclear insecurity.
On 26 April 1986, a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine melted down and spewed radioactive materials across Europe and beyond. The human, environmental and economic impacts of the accident were profound and continue.
“Chernobyl literally exploded the myth of the ‘peaceful atom’ and caused many nations to reconsider the risks and costs of nuclear power,” said ACF nuclear free campaigner Dave Sweeney.
“On the anniversary of Chernobyl and in the continuing shadow of Fukushima it is important Australia also reviews and reconsiders the costs and consequences of our involvement in the global nuclear trade as a significant supplier of uranium – the basic fuel for both nuclear power and nuclear weapons.”
Last year it was confirmed in the federal Parliament that Australian uranium was in the failed Fukushima reactor and is now causing contamination in Japan. However the federal government has failed to act on calls – including from the UN Secretary General – to review the industry.
ACF has called for the federal government to learn from Chernobyl and Fukushima and:
- · Commission an independent assessment of the environmental and social impacts of uranium mining in Australia (as recommended in the UN review into the Fukushima crisis)
- · Stop selling uranium to nuclear weapon states pending an independent review of importing countries’ compliance with international disarmament obligations
- · Strengthen international and multi-lateral initiatives by including specific performance requirements and review mechanisms in new and existing Agreements and contracts
“Uranium is the asbestos of the 21st Century: like asbestos, the product works, but at too high a cost – and like asbestos Australia will one day stop mining and supplying it. In the meantime we need to step up to our responsibilities and review and address the impacts of the uranium trade. To fail to do so is to fail to learn from the lessons of Chernobyl and Fukushima and to fail to stop the next nuclear disaster,” Mr Sweeney said.
South Australian Government grants lease to (weapons connected) Four Mile uranium mining project
Four Mile uranium mine gets lease Adelaide Now, by: Julian Swallow April 27, 2012 ALLIANCE Resources and its joint venture partner Quasar Resources have been granted a 10-year mineral lease over their Four Mile project, ending months of negotiations. Mineral Resources minister Tom Koutsantonis said on Friday that South Australia was a step closer to its next major uranium mining development. However, no timetable or funding commitment has as yet been made by the venture partners, who remain locked in a legal dispute…… Continue reading
ERA to close Ranger uranium mine, in context of 90% share price fall
Doncha love the headline from this Sydney Morning Herald article about the uranium company Energy Resources of Australia? Anyone would think that the company had wonderful prospects. But read the lines (you don’t need to read between the lines) – and you see the true picture – colossal share price loss, closure of the Ranger open pit mine, and a laughable future prospect for their plan for an underground uranium mine.
From a share price of $18.22 in May 2009, the stock lost more than 90 per cent of its value to be languishing at $1.15 earlier this year, with the company’s future being seriously questioned.
Kakadu’s miner for all seasons SMH, Peter Ker April 28, 2012 After three decades as a major uranium producer in Australia’s top end, Atkinson’s company Energy Resources of Australia is about to fill in its massive open pit and return the landscape to something resembling the nearby Kakadu National Park.
In a reversal of the typical path taken by mining companies, ERA is about to go from producer to explorer, gambling its future on the viability of a deposit deep beneath its existing operations….
… ERA has spent the past 30 years digging uranium from a small province surrounded on all sides by Kakadu National Park. The company operates here at the grace of the indigenous community, which has long been reluctant to see any more of its land developed for mining. Continue reading
BHP Billiton looking for more uranium in South Australia
BHP Steps Up Its Olympic Ambitions, WSJ, By Stephen Bell, April 24, 2012, BHP Billiton is a fully paid-up believer in the mining theory of ‘nearology’ if its latest Australian land grab is anything to go by. The Anglo-Australian miner has tabled applications for exploration licenses covering more than 10,000 square kilometers in arid regions surrounding the huge Olympic Dam copper-gold–uranium mine in South Australia state……
BHP is expected to make a decision this year on whether to proceed with an expansion at Olympic Dam, a project analysts estimate could cost close to US$30 billion. Continue reading
Paladin Uranium’s debts require it to sell off assets
Paladin Energy under pressure to flog assets The Australian, BY: ROSS KELLY Wall Street Journal April 26, 2012 PALADIN Energy still needs to offload assets to meet looming debt payments and funding requirements, according to Citigroup, which has nominated two of the uranium miner’s non-producing assets in Australia and Canada as possible candidates for divestment……“If the cash squeeze became very acute on Paladin the company could also look to
sell an interest in a producing asset,” Citigroup says.
Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is not much use
MINING GIANT SEEKS COSTS FROM ARABUNNA ELDER AFTER RULING ON CHALLENGE TO FEDERAL APPROVAL OF THE OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION 20 April 12, In a packed courtroom today Justice Besanko dismissed Uncle Kevin Buzzacott’s challenge of the Federal approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. The judge did not discuss his reasons in the court.
Both BHP and the Federal government are seeking costs from Kevin Buzzacott. The hearing was held in the Federal Court on the 3rd and 4th April, after which the Judge reserved his judgement. Both BHP Billiton and the South Australian government had successfully sought to become parties to the proceedings.
“The speed with which this decision was made suggests pressure to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so as not to impact the project,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.
“The judgement is really a product of the constrained nature of such administrative challenges. It really rests on interpretation of two pieces of legislation which govern the Ministers approval. The merits of the project were never on the table for discussion.”
“If such an approval with so many future plans yet to be approved constitutes a proper approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act, how can such an open-ended project be judicially reviewed?” said Ms Calan. “The question we are left with is whether the EPBC Act protects the environment,” Ms Calan continued.
“This is a very sad day,” said applicant Kevin Buzzacott. “We offered the judge the issue on a platter, and he wasted an opportunity to make changes that will reverberate in this nation for thousands of years.”
“But we’re not going away. This isn’t over yet,” Mr Buzzacott concluded. Both Kevin Buzzacott and Nectaria Calan will be available for comment on the details of the ruling early next week once the lengthy judgement has been considered.
BHP’s Olympic Dam mine expansion might not go ahead anyway
Acting chief executive of the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy Nigel Long said the state’s mining industry was not solely reliant on the expansion of Olympic Dam because there were other “exciting opportunities” ahead,
“The decision to press the pause button is a decision to be made by the BHP board, but we see a very good future for other projects in South Australia regardless…..
The BHP board will be considering whether to approve the project at a time when cost pressures in Australian mining are rising and profit margins are contracting.
BHP has Olympic hurdles to overcome, Financial Review 17 APR 2012 The South Australian government says it is not inclined to grant BHP Billiton an extension on an approvals expiring in December that cover the $US20 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam mine at this stage. Jamie Freed and Lucille Keen
“They’d need a ministerial exemption to continue those approvals,” the state’s Minister for Natural Resources Tom Koutsantonis told ABC Radio South Australia yester day. “Thus far I’ve seen nothing that would incline me to grant an exten sion.”
His comments followed a report in The Australian Financial Review on Saturday that BHP was weighing whether to hit the pause button on the project amid a weaker outlook for commodities, industry-wide cost inflation, added government imposts and pressure from shareholders to return more cash.
BHP’s largest shareholder, Black- Rock, has lowered its stake in the miner’s Australian arm from 5.7 percent to 4.99 per cent over the past six months, according to US regulatory filings. “BlackRock are realising BHP are going to press the button on Olympic Dam so they are getting out,” Continue reading
Australian company Lynas suing Malaysian news portal for defamation
Local regulators Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) had said in January it would approve a TOL subject to added conditions including identifying a suitable long-term waste disposal site.
Lynas had said last month that identifying this site “is a work in progress.” It also said prior to AELB’s decision that a permanent depository facility (PDF) will only be needed in a “worst-case scenario” where it is unable to reprocess the waste into a commercial product.
Lynas sues news portal, protest groups for defamation, The Malaysian Insider, By Anisah Shukry April 20, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR, — Lynas Corp has filed a defamation suit against online news portal Free Malaysia Today for “false and misleading statements” in a recently published article.
The Australian mining group is also suing Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas’s (SMSL) directors and committee members over an open letter published on the group’s web site…..
Lynas has faced fierce protests from Kuantan residents and opposition politicians who say that the RM2.5 billion rare-earth refinery in nearby Gebeng will cause radiation pollution Continue reading
It looks as if the Northern Territory govt will allow uranium mining in water catchment area!
Exploration in dam catchment http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2012/04/18/299461_ntnews.html NIGEL ADLAM | April 18th, 2012 TEN mining exploration licences have been granted in the water catchment for a possible new dam. Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis denied any of the licences had been issued specifically for uranium. “Rather the authorisation allows the holder to undertake exploration within a specific area,” he said.
The licences are in the catchment for Warrai Dam, 8km upstream from Adelaide River township, 100km south of Darwin.
Power and Water Corporation boss Andrew Macrides said the $500 million dam may not have to be built for at least 20 years – and possibly not at all.
Australian uranium miner Paladin – shares down again
Paladin misses targets, shares drop, Peter Ker April 16, 2012 Shares in Paladin Energy are sliding lower this
morning, after the uranium miner revealed it had missed production targets yet again and had been forced to reduce its annual production targets.
Uranium production at Paladin’s flagship Langer Heinrich mine was 10 per cent below the company’s target during the first three months of2012, while its secondary mine also missed its production targets.
The missed targets, combined with concerns over Paladin’s debt, was pushing shares were down by 3 cents to 1.77 shortly after 11am…. Many analysts are concerned about Paladin’s debt levels, and the company is looking to sell minority stakes in its non-producing assets as a way to boost cashflow.
Concerns over the debt situation prompted Patersons Securities to downgrade Paladin to a sell earlier this month.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/paladin-misses-targets-shares-drop-20120416-1x2od.html#ixzz1sQlkNcbp
Uranium spot price ‘dead for months’, despite lobby propaganda
18 April 12, Yesterday 9 news reported on the uranium spot price’s continuing dismal slide : –
“Last week a mere three transactions occurred in the global spot uranium market, totalling 500,000lbs, industry consultant TradeTech reports. TradeTech’s spot price indicator remains unchanged at US$51.25/lb. Year to date trading has seen 8.2mlbs of U3O8 equivalent change hands compared to 18.4mlbs in the same period last year. ….
the spot uranium market has been pretty “dead” for the past several months….. Australian-listed Paladin Energy has been following a bumpy road to becoming one of the world’s more significant uranium producers as it deals with the usual pitfalls of project development and expansion and deals with them in Namibia. Aside from production issues, Paladin is suffering from cashflow tightness as development costs rise in the face of weak post-Fukushima uranium pricing”
ERA talking about closure costs for Ranger uranium mine (have they budgeted enough?)
Era adds A$251m to Ranger closure plan By: Esmarie Swanepoel, Mining Weekly, 11th April 2012 PERTH – The CEO of uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia (Era), Rob Atkinson on Wednesday told shareholders that the company had increased the provision for the closure of its Ranger mine, in the Northern Territory, from A$314-million to A$565-million, following a desktop review.
At the company’s annual general meeting, Atkinson said that the miner would continue investigating its closure plan during the remainder of 2012…… He noted that the revised plan would support a review of the rehabilitation cost estimate, later this year.
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
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