While investors cheered the merger of uranium hopefuls Vimy Resources and Deep Yellow this week, conservationists began steeling themselves for the fight of their lives against its flagship Mulga Rock project.
The two companies believe the $658 million tie-up comes at an ideal time with uranium prices finally on the move after a decade in the doldrums following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011.
They also see an emerging window of opportunity to develop the $393m Mulga Rock project 290km east of Kalgoorlie, which has long been stalled by weak sentiment for the nuclear fuel and the high costs of developing it.
But the WA Conservation Council remains bitterly opposed to uranium mining in WA and believes it will have killed off any hope of the industry in WA if it can stop Mulga Rock from going ahead.
The project was one of four approved by the previous Liberal government, which the McGowan Government said it would not renege on when it came to power in 2017 despite Labor’s long standing opposition to uranium mining in WA.
Environmentalists believe they have already won the war over the other three projects — Cameco’s Yeelirrie and Kintyre and Toro Energy’s Wiluna — after the companies missed development milestones that were key to their approvals.
Vimy had to scramble to meet a December 16 deadline to achieve “substantial commencement” of Mulga Rock, a key milestone under its Barnett Government approval granted in 2016.
CCWA still disputes the awarding of substantial commencement, arguing the government’s acceptance of the cleared hurdle sets a bad precedent.
“All they had really done at that point is laid a bit of pipe, dug a bit of earth and cleared a bit of land,” CCWA spokeswoman Mia Pepper said.
“They still don’t have the finance to develop the mine and they still haven’t made a final investment decision.”
Ms Pepper said CCWA would explore all legal avenues possible to prevent the mine from going ahead.
“We’ve worked with Traditional Owners from that community for many years and we’re not going to walk away from them now just because Deep Yellow has showed up and the uranium price is up a little bit,” she said.
Vimy Resources managing director Steven Michael noted all Vimy employees would remain with the merged entity, meaning ongoing engagement with Traditional Owners and environmental groups would continue seamlessly.
“We’ve been engaging with Traditional Owners around the Mulga Rock region for nearly a decade... and we continue to actively engage with the new claimants that have lodged claims including our area over the past year,” he said.
Uranium bulls say nuclear energy’s time has come because of its capability of delivering low-emissions baseload power as the world looks to transition to a low-carbon economy to combat climate change.
Deep Yellow said in a statement it was excited about the role it could play, through the development of its uranium assets in Australia and in Namibia, to support the global decarbonisation effort.
But environmentalists argue the benefits are outweighed by the costs, which include radioactive waste, the threat of a repeat of nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima and enriched uranium falling into the wrong hands and being used for nuclear weapons.
“You have to ask: Can we safely ship uranium overseas and know that it’s going to be safe? And the answer is no,” Ms Pepper said.
“Australia sold uranium to Ukraine in April last year. That’s now in reactors that are under military occupation.”
Ms Pepper agreed carbon emissions were one important measure of pollution and climate change needed to be addressed but insisted nuclear power was not the answer because it was too expensive, the lead time to build a reactor was too long and small modular reactors - touted by some as the future of nuclear - were not commercial.
“Nuclear is not the silver bullet to solving the climate crisis that the industry is promoting,” she said.
Uranium industry veteran John Borshoff said while he respected some people’s negative opinion on uranium mining and nuclear power, the industry had legitimacy and the world had needs.
“We acknowledge that there are groups that are opposed to nuclear energy, and therefore uranium mining,” he said.
“We respect all sides of the uranium discussion, including opposing views, and encourage respectful, informed public debate.”
The founder and former managing director of Paladin Energy said he had worked through the same opposition when developing that company’s operations in Namibia.
Former Vimy boss Mike Young, who left the company in August after more than seven years but remains a shareholder, said Vimy had followed all the rules and done everything it had been asked to by authorities to develop Mulga Rock.
