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Uranium miner woos
Czech population.
AUSTRALIAN mining company
Uran this week launched a charm
offensive to win over Czechs living at a
series of sites in the small central European
State where it wants to extract
uranium.
Company managing director Kate
Hobbs yesterday started public meetings
with mayors and citizens of three
central Czech towns and villages to try
and win their backing for its new
demand for exploratory mining permits.
"Most of the people are neutral and
some supportive," she said after the
first meeting at the town of Pribyslav.
The meetings are being held near
the site of the only existing uranium
mine in the European Union, operated
by Czech State-controlled mining
company Diamo at Rozna.
Uran's previous bid to create a joint
venture with Diamo was rejected by
the Czech Government.
The new raft of applications, three
in the central Vysocina region as well
as for two sites at Osecna and Plouznice
in the north of the country, is
accompanied by an offer to pay each
local council 800,000 koruna
($A51,400) a year while exploration
work continues and 1.6 million koruna
a year when commercial mining
commences.
The charm campaign is aimed at
overcoming the Czech Ministry of
Environment's right to refuse permits
or allow appeals against its refusal
partly when there is no local support
for mining.
The multinational Australianbased
company is still waiting for a
final verdict from Czech authorities
on its initial application for another
site in the centre of the country,
Brzkov, which Hobbs earmarks as one
of the most attractive mining prospects
because around 7500t of uranium
could be present there and "we understand
the mining area better".
Hobbs says Uran hopes to get a
foothold in the Czech Republic
because of its ability to use modern
mining know-how.
"There has been no attempt to use
equipment developed since the Soviet
era," she explained.
But Uran cautions that the current
high prices for uranium, caused by the
global resurgence of the nuclear industry
for which uranium is the fundmanental
fuel, might last five to 10 years
before-casing.
"If we got permission to go ahead, it
would take three to four years before
we could produce uranium," Hobbs
added.
During the Cold War, communist
Czechoslovakia was one of Moscow's
main suppliers of the raw material for
its nuclear warheads with a dozen
major uranium mines dotted across
the country.
In the early 1990s, after the fall o
cWoamr,m Cuzneicshm m ainndi ntgh ep elunmd mofe ttehde toold
per cent of its average over.the previous
decade as markets were swamped
by fuel extracted from nuclear warheads.
The price of uranium has soared
since the end of 2Q03 due to a revival of
interest in nuclear power because of
fears over global warming and the
worldwide stability of fossil fuel supplies.
Czech your sight Uran is on a goodwill mission to win over citizens and
politicians in the Czech Republic.
33364322
Brief: URAN(P)
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licensed copy
Kalgoorlie Miner
Thursday 7/2/2008
Page: 18
Section: General News
Region: Kalgoorlie WA Circulation: 5,643
Type: Regional
Size: 251.06 sq.cms.
Published: MTWTFS