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
Students protest uranium mining companies beyond the law
“The Australian public think we live in a democracy but when it comes to particularly uranium mines, they not applicable. They are exempt,……
Protesters slime offices on the “Nuclear scumbags tour of Adelaide” | Reportage 9 July 2010, Hundreds of students have protested outside the offices of the big players from Australia’s uranium industry.The ‘Nuclear Scumbags tour’ day of action was part of the Students of Sustainability (SOS) conference being hosted by Flinders University in Adelaide on Wednesday. Continue reading
Forcing Aboriginals off their land in the interests of uranium mining
A monster has been created in our name called the Mining Industry, we all benefit from it, but not nearly as much as the Mining Magnates who run and control them. Our silence in the face of such blatant land grabs is no longer acceptable – we can no longer be innocent bystanders in our own country.
Terry Fitzpatrick Homily July 4 2010 NAIDOC WEEK » St Mary’s “……… ….Under the new Northern Territory Housing laws, and with the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act, Aboriginal people living on their own country who receive any form of Centrelink income support are being forced to give up their control of their land. Continue reading
Encouraging advice for Australian Govt and Nuclear Industry
Having Troubles with your local Aborigines? 20 Ways to Commit Publicly Acceptable Genocide
“……13, When Aboriginal people protest mining and development on their own land, tell them they don’t understand what’s good for them. Tell them that they should be grateful for radioactive pollution because it comes with a cheque from the mining company. Make sure the government doesn’t provide any services to areas with high Aboriginal populations. Allow the mining companies to promise a service infrastructure well below the national standard. Tell the Aborigines that without the mining company they will have nothing. Don’t be bothered if the mining company fails all promises. Set up an extra government department to look at Aboriginal services. Uset his money to subsidise another government department. Use the leftovers to subsidise the obligations of the mining company. Announce an increase in government funding on the needs of Aboriginal people, as though housing is a special need of Aborigines. Thank the mining company for caring for the community and contributing to the economy….” Adapted by Emma Heughan and Matt Fagan from an untitled article obtained from the internet dealing with the genocide of Native Americans.
Changes to Australia’s Law planned, to further uranium mining
sends a further public message about the likelihood of uranium mining being an increasing part of the mining landscape in Australia.
Changes to Commonwealth environmental approvals for uranium mining Australia, Lexology -July 6 2010 In brief:
- The Federal Government released its response to Deloitte’s 2008 Review of Regulatory Efficiency in Uranium Mining in May 2010.
- The response indicates there may be major changes to the environmental regulation of uranium mining in Australia. These may facilitate the approvals process for uranium mining. Continue reading
Australia’s students take to the streets against the uranium/nuclear industry
7 July 2010, Students take to the street to hold nuclear scumbags accountable.
Today hundreds of students from across Australia will take to the streets of Adelaide on The ‘Nuclear Scumbags Tour’. This will be a creative and informative demonstration by Traditional Owners, students, and community members speaking out against the coercion and exploitation of Aboriginal communities by Government and nuclear industry alike. The irresponsible industry practices combined with the lack of ethical government policy shows complete disregard for the environment, water and indigenous rights. Continue reading
Many mining companies worse off in Gillard’s new tax plan
BHP Billiton pays the South Australian government an embarrassing 3.5 per cent royalty for the uranium it extracts in the state’s north. As a result of the Gillard compromise it has escaped paying a resource rent tax of 40 per cent but regained a huge sovereign risk.
Sovereign risk back on the resources table, Sydney Morning Herald, PETER MARTINJuly 7, 2010 Have many mining companies been made worse off by of the changes made by Julia Gillard?…….. Continue reading
Billionaire corporate miners now running Australia’s ship of state
Like the wealth that comes from iron ore and coal, the answer takes some digging but it appears to be corporate, not union, power that steers the ship of state.
Gillard Caves In To Miners, The Age , DAVID MCKNIGHT, July 6, 2010 Corporate, not union, power can frequently drive politicians’ priorities. The struggle to define the victor and vanquished over the new mining tax will continue until the election, but we are left with a larger question, one once scornfully directed at trade unions: who is running the country? Continue reading
Uranium Awareness from Experts, with Aboriginal Interpreters
Uranium awareness tour hits the road 5 July 2010, The Kimberley Uranium Awareness Community Forums kick off this week with meetings in Kununurra, Halls Creek, Billiluna, Fitzroy Crossing, Looma, Mowanjum, Derby and Broome.
The forums aim to inform Kimberley people about the risks of uranium mining and how this activity has affected Indigenous in other parts of Australia. Forum organisers have invited technical experts and Traditional Owners from the Northern Territory and South Australia to speak at the meetings. Continue reading
BHP and Olympic Dam uranium mining – beyond the laws
BHP Billiton’s power in Australia seems to grow daily.
BHP , Rio Tinto, Xstrata showed their power by intimidating Julia Gillard with the threat of renewing their $100 million advertising campaign. She had to act fast – hence the new, watered-down Resources Rent Tax.
Exempted from Australia’s planned new Resources Rent Tax, and with BHP people in its policy-making, along with their lackey, Martin Ferguson, BHP adds to its achievements in being beyond both Federal and State laws.
Water: In South Australia, BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mining gets 37 million litres of water daily completely free of charge
SA Roxby Downs Indenture Act . This legislation allows the mine to operate with wide-ranging exemptions from:
Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act
Environment Protection Act
Natural Resources Act
Freedom of Information Act
Nuclear salesmen to run Australia’s new Resources Rent Tax
BHP Billiton and the uranium lobby are getting ever more powerful in policy-making in Australia.
Julia Gillard’s new Resources Rent Tax will be organsed by two top nuclear salesmen – Don Argus (from BHP BIlliton) and Nuclear Industry Minister Martin Ferguson.
Australia’s top science research body has strong links to BHP, and a chairman, Simon McKeon, who is a climate change doubter.
No Resource Rent Tax for Olympic Dam uranium mine
Done deal for Rann as Olympic Dam emerges unscathed , David Nason : The Australian * July 03, 2010 THE compromise mining tax won’t wring a single extra cent from the country’s biggest proposed mining project in South Australia. BHP Billiton’s $20 billion-plus Olympic Dam expansion in South Australia is exempt from the new tax, Continue reading
BHP, Climate Doubters, involved now in Australia’s CSIRO
A poor climate for debate at CSIRO, The Age, Paddy Manning, July 3, 2010 QUESTIONS are being raised about the closeness of BHP Billiton and the CSIRO under chief executive Megan Clark. A former technology vice president at BHP, Clark was appointed in late 2008 ……. there is concern about the imbalance in research funding at CSIRO, particularly in responses to climate change. Continue reading
Uranium mining exempted from Resources tax, Ferguson fixes it.
Tax deal lifts cloud over miners, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 july 2010, Australia’s biggest miners face paying more tax, but not nearly as much as feared, after winning big concessions from the federal government….
Most importantly, the new tax will not affect BHP Billiton’s $23 billion plan to expand the massive Olympic Dam mine, the world’s biggest uranium deposit ….
Having signed off on the resource rent deal, only one major uncertainty remains for the miners. Will this new tax be approved by Australia’s Senate following an election expected in the next few months? Continue reading
BHP, Rio Tinto, aim for rampant ripoff of Australia’s resources
Christina Macpherson 29 June 2010, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto etc paid lip service to Australia’s new Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in temporarily closing their multi-million dollar advertising campaign against the Australian Government’s proposed super profit resources tax.
They might now be back in force – because it’s no holds barred in the corporate mining world.
Do Australians realise that many responsible national bodies, and some international ones, such as the International Monetary Fund, see this resources tax as necessary and fair for Australians now and in the future?
It’s not an idea that’s unique to Australia. Similar taxes are now in existence in South Africa, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Chile, – Venezuela and Mongolia have gone further. Germany is introducing a uranium fuel tax. Perhaps the days of mining corporations’ rampant ripoff of national resources are coming to an end
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 