Australia gambles on the dodgy uranium industry
You do wonder where Australian politics is heading. Clearly the big uranium miners BHP, Rio Tinto, ExStrata, are now dictating Labor policy on mining tax. (They have always dictated Liberal policy). Some ambitious union leaders are also hand in glove with those big miners, as are the South Australian and Western Australian governments.
Those States, and the Northern Territory are crawling with uranium explorers, and uranium mining is being hyped in the media. Yet uranium prices fall, and the nuclear industry stalls in USA, Europe, Britain.
Australia pitches its glowing uranium prospects on China. China is notorious for corruption, including in the nuclear industry, it has dubious safety and nuclear waste management, and a keen nuclear weapons program. But apart from all that – China might wake up to the financial and environmental negatives of nuclear power.
While China itself, and Europe, and soon, even USA, show the way on 21st Century renewable energy technologies, Australia is gambling on a very dodgy future of uranium sales.
Uranium miners stack Australia’s group for mines tax policy
the policy-transition group will be headed by former BHP chairman Don Argus and Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson.
Toro Energy CEO joins big miners in Labor’s mines tax policy team, The Australian * Rachel Pannett * From: Dow Jones Newswires * August 03, 2010
WAYNE Swan today named former and serving resource executives ……. to the government’s mines tax policy team. The policy-transition group now includes….. former Rio Tinto executive David Klingner, Erica Smyth, chairman of uranium explorer Toro Energy….. and BHP Billiton),….. Continue reading
Bob Brown scathing about the resources tax gift to the big miners
A tax on minerals like uranium should be implemented once the industry was in “boom times” he [Bob Brown, Greens leader] said.
Major parties ‘missing backbone’ on mining tax, Sydney Morning Herald, KATHERINE FENECH, August 2, “…..The CFMEU has launched the satirical ad campaign, which praises Opposition leader Tony Abbott for understanding the pressures facing “ordinary, everyday billionaires”, in response to the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ own advertising onslaught against the Mineral Resources Rent Tax. Continue reading
Young activists spread anti-nuclear message across Australia
Since returning, solidarity bus riders have addressed public meetings in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong. Several are taking part in the Friends of the Earth Nuclear Freeways tour
Protesters issue warning on Olympic Dam expansion, Green Left Weekly, August 1, 2010, By Patrick Harrison After spending over two weeks on the road together, students and activists onboard the New South Wales “Indigenous Solidarity Ride” stopped at Olympic Dam on July 15 to protest against a proposed uranium mine expansion. Continue reading
AUSTRALIAN ELECTION and the NUCLEAR INDUSTRY – our theme for August 2010
Australia faces an election on August 21. The major political parties are united in one policy – that is –keeping quiet about nuclear power. And Julia Gillard – Labor, and Tony Abbott – Liberal-Coalition, have got plenty to shut up about.
Both Labor and Liberal are beholden to their corporate masters. In the case of Labor, this was shown in a dramatic way, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard kow towed over the planned Super Profit Resources tax. And, with the new, tamed, Resources Rent Tax – uranium mining is exempt even from that one.
The Liberal Coalition used to be blatantly in favour of a nuclear Australia. Now, with the election looming, only a few of their maverick MPs will state this out loud.
Under the radar, the powerful and well-funded nuclear lobby is working away at both parties – for uranium/nuclear policies to be revealed after the election is safely over.
BHP- cutting staff, new Environmental Impact Statement on OLympic Dam uranium mine expansion
The decision is understood to affect about 150 staff…..BHP is preparing a supplementary environmental impact statement in response to public consultation on its draft EIS for the Olympic Dam expansion.
BHP to move white-collar jobs interstate and overseas Gavin Lower . The Australian July 23, 2010 Continue reading
Protest at Olympic Dam against effects on Aborigines, water, pollution
Zane Alcorn said: “Not only is the expansion at Olympic Dam going ahead without the consent of traditional owners, but tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day is being sucked out of the Artesian Basin on Arabunna land to service the mine.
Protesters block mine. Roxby Downs Sun, 22 Jul, 2010 Forty anti-nuclear activists staged a protest on Friday against the Olympic Dam expansion, blockading the entrance and stopping traffic from entering.
The protest aimed to highlight the “catastrophic effects” the mine and its expansion would have on traditional owners and their natural resources. Activists painted themselves blue and used their bodies to spell words such as water, with some people partly naked to help draw attention to their views. Continue reading
Greed and stupidity in uranium investment world
You would think that investors would wake up to the hype! The so-called “nuclear renaissance” is just not happening.
Even the market for nuclear weapons is now looking dodgy – these being no protection whatever from terrorists, (in fact a target for them)
China is looking to slow down its economy.- China’s supposed great uranium binge is a BHP executives’ fantasy
There is a glut of uranium supply, made worse by the weapons reduction program, which now supplies uranium (mining not needed)
From today’s CTV News: “Despite the low spot and term prices, uranium producers have shown almost no discipline by reducing current or planned output,”…Despite falling uranium prices, worldwide spending on exploration and mine development grew 133 per cent to $1.6-billion in 2008 from 2006″
In sunny Australia, passing up the chance to develop 21st Century renewables, we are mindlessly letting banks, super funds etc, put our money into this gaping hole of impending loss – the almost certainly doomed uranium industry.
World’s biggest uranium hole, BHP’s Olympic Dam. in doubt
“we are hearing from engineering circles that BHP has gone cold on the project. And it’s my gut feeling that the enthusiasm isn’t quite there any more.” – shadow mining minister Mitch Williams
Hole lot of trouble for BHP – The Independent Weekly, KEVIN NAUGHTON, 17 Jul, 2010 BHP Billiton’s Clark Shaft at Olympic Dam is set to return to full production, ending a nine-month lull in copper and uranium output.
But the news comes as speculation again surfaces about the company’s long-term plans for the mine…….
Stop BHP’s expansion of Olympic Dam Uranium Mine
Zane Alcorn, said their purpose was to highlight the catastrophic effects the mine and its planned expansion would have on traditional owners, their land and future generations…..tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day
is being sucked out of the Artesian Basin on Arabunna land to service the mine,”
Protesters gather at mine site, Sydney Morning Herald, July 16, 2010 –An anti-nuclear protester has chained himself to a four-wheel-drive blocking the road to BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia’s far north. Continue reading
Free DVD on uranium mining danger to Australia’s workers
“When the dust settles” – a David Bradbury film If anyone wants a free copy of the dvd, all they have to do is send $5 bucks (postage costs) in an envelope to
PO Box 1250 Mullumbimby
NSW 2482 for a copy.
Or they they can go online and check it out for free (less quality) on youtube
at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSScncD3Ark
Big Mining’s removal of Rudd may cost them backlash
Julia Gillard’s quick fix essentially gave the big miners open slather to rewrite the new tax to suit themselves……Both BHP and Rio Tinto have acted entirely logically and within the law by attempting to minimise their tax and maximise their profits for shareholders. But the win in Australia, with their very public display of power, may cost them dearly elsewhere.
Big-talking giants may come down with a thud, Sydney Morning Herald, Ian Verrender, July 13, 2010 f the European Union had reservations about the iron ore tie-up between the mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, it no doubt would have been stunned by Tom Albanese’s extraordinary remarks in London last week…….. Continue reading
Nuclear and fossil fuel lobby’s dilemma over carbon price
The big producers of fossil fuels and uranium, having safely disposed of Kevin Rudd and his resources profit tax, are now treading carefully on the Climate Change issue. They and the servile mass media did a good job on discrediting Climate Change – so we wouldn’t need to do anything about carbon emissions. The idea is to keep coal roaring on until it can be replaced by nuclear power.
The problem is that their pitch on nuclear power is that it’s the answer to 
global warming , (even though global warming isn’t supposed to be real or man-made). Therefore Australia would need a carbon price, shudder! a carbon tax!
No wonder Ziggy Spinowski’s being a bit quiet these pre-election days!
Australia’s nuclear lobby needs a carbon price – how embarassing!
John Howard asked Ziggy Switkowski in 2006 to look at nuclear power, and Switkowski told him it couldn’t happen without a carbon price. So, no nuclear power without a “great big new tax”………
No carbon price? You’re being conned | Crikey, 12 July, by Bernard Keane “……..The Coalition is dead keen on nuclear but won’t ever move without Labor giving them cover. But as Crikey showed in November last year, nuclear power is ludicrously expensive and needs massive taxpayer support, otherwise it costs a lot more to build and more to operate than renewables. And that’s before you figure out where to park the waste for a few hundreds of thousands of years or decommission reactors. Continue reading
Costs and low uranium prices put Olympic Dam expansion at risk
BHP’s Olympic Dam expansion under pressure, Business Spectator 12 Jul 2010 BHP Billiton Ltd’s $US20 billion Olympic Dam expansion in Australia may be delayed by a protracted environmental assessment and cost, the Australian Financial Review reports. The recent softening prices for Olympic Dam’s key minerals, especially uranium, and a significant increase in the required capital is also understood to be weighing on BHP, the paper said. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 