gillards uranium revolution

Gillard's uranium revolution : Robert Gottliebsen

Published 7:40 AM, 15 Nov 2011 Last update 10:35 AM, 15 Nov 2011


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In a few short words advocating selling uranium to India, Prime Minister Julia Gillard heralded the beginning of a new phase of the minerals boom in Australia. Because Indian demand for our uranium (and coal) is going to be big – very big.


She also transformed the economics of the development of the world’s richest mineral deposit – BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam.


With BHP dominating Australian investment portfolios, Australian superannuation savers have every reason to cheer Julia Gillard, who now understands that the Indian uranium declaration means she faces a gruelling time from anti-uranium forces in her party and among the Greens.


Gillard has also ushered in a new wave of Indian investment in Australia and confirmed the hopes of the Australian mineral bulls who say that when China starts to flatten out India will take up the growth curve.

When you look what is happening in Indian power generation, you suddenly see why India is desperate for our coal as well as our uranium.

Electricity demand in India is increasing rapidly, and the 830 billion kilowatt hours produced in 2008 was triple the 1990 output. But the Indian electricity industry has problems. There are huge losses in transmitting power over long distances. Coal provides around 68 per cent of Indian electricity but reserves are limited and can’t support the planned enormous power expansion projects.

Gas provides about 8 per of Indian power and hydro 14 per cent, while nuclear is currently around 4 per cent, because India has had problems accessing world nuclear technology. In the longer-term that technology freeze looks like being a blessing for India, because when the Western world turned its back on nuclear, India did extensive research work developing nuclear power technology.

But that’s all changing. Not only does India expect to double per capita electricity consumption by 2020, but huge rises in power generation are expected in the following decades.

While there is considerable community debate in India, the 2050 broad plan is to generate 25 per cent of this greatly expanded electricity requirement via nuclear power.

At the same time, China has also decided that nuclear is a key mechanism to reduce its carbon footprint. You can see why China is looking around the world at buying companies with uranium reserves.

The global community has extensive debates over nuclear energy but India and China can see no other way to lift the standard of living of their people and contain carbon. Students of history know what happens to countries that have vast resources and refuse to sell them. Thanks to the Gillard policy, Australia is not in that situation.
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