Australia, S Korea to sign uranium deal Tuesday Sep 26 19:22 AEST
AP - State-owned Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co will sign a contract by the end of October to buy a total of 1,000 metric tons of uranium from Energy Resources of Australia Ltd, the government said on Tuesday.
"As the 1,000 tons of uranium accounts for 25 per cent of the country's annual consumption of uranium, it will help maintain a stable supply of the raw material for the nation," South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said in a statement.
The uranium will be purchased over five years starting in 2010, the statement said.
A ministry official told Dow Jones Newswires on condition of anonymity that the uranium would be used in nuclear power plants.
South Korea, one of the world's top five coal and oil importers, depends on nuclear reactors for 40 per cent of its power and is talking of increasing that to 60 per cent by 2035.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power is building four reactors and plans four more by 2017.
Australia produces about one-fifth of the world's uranium, and most of its output is committed under long-term contracts with the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea.
Energy Resources of Australia itself supplies about 12 per cent of the world's uranium.
The statement also said that state-owned Korea Resources Corp and SK Corp, South Korea's largest oil refiner, will sign a contract by the end of this month to jointly buy a 15 per cent stake in Cockatoo Coal Ltd. to strengthen the country's supply of coal from Australia.
Korea Resources and SK Corp will also have a right to 15 per cent of the total output of four Cockatoo soft coal mines in Queensland, Australia.
Under the deal South Korea is expected to meet 15 per cent of its annual soft coal needs, according to the statement. Soft coal is also known as bituminous coal, which is used mainly as fuel in power stations.
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