This means good things for Blaze!!BHP bets on a change in WA...

This means good things for Blaze!!

BHP bets on a change in WA policy
Nigel Wilson, Energy writer
July 12, 2007

RESOURCE giant BHP Billiton has resumed work on the moribund Yeelirrie uranium deposit with the expectation that Western Australia's anti-uranium mining policy will be thrown out once Premier Alan Carpenter departs.
New analytical work is being undertaken on the prospect south of Wiluna and the agreement between former owners WMC and the State of Western Australia is being reviewed in preparation for the possibility of new legislation.

The company's announcement that it will create a uranium and Olympic Dam division coincides with a a renewed focus on Yeelirrie.

The company is spending substantial sums on assessing Yeelirrie, which was reported as a discovery by WMC as far back as 1972.

The deposit, about 500km north of Kalgoorlie, is estimated to contain about 55,000 tonnes of uranium oxide in what is claimed to be the world's largest calcrete-type deposit.

The man appointed to head the new division, Graeme Hunt, has previous experience in WA as the head of the group's Pilbara iron ore operations.

Renewed activity at Yeelirrie is matched by Rio Tinto, which, according to locals, has resumed drilling through its exploration arm Canning Resources on the Kintyre deposit found in 1985 on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert in the eastern Pilbara next to the Rudall River national park.

Kintyre is estimated to contain about 36,000 tonnes of U308.

Both prospects are being worked on the basis that WA will change its anti-uranium policy in the future under a different premier.

Another driver is sustained high uranium prices with spot softening only slightly from $US135 a pound in recent weeks.

Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said yesterday that uranium exploration spending, at about $77 million, was at a 25-year high with more than 200 companies looking for uranium last year compared with only 34 a year earlier.

The minister said significant discoveries since 2005 included a new deposit north of the Beverley mine in South Australia, major extension of the Olympic Dam site and extensions to several known deposits in the Mt Isa region.

"Although the record level of mineral exploration is broadly encouraging, almost two-thirds was in brownfields. Exploration expenditure must be maintained at high levels if Australia's resource base and mineral production capacity is to be increased," Mr Macfarlane said.