First time I've posted here.
I'm a communist sypathiser (is that "leftist" enough for you?). I'm Australian and British currently living in France. Despite all those personal characteristics I am also heavily invested in GGG. That is because I also believe that GGG will finally go ahead --- one day.
I also accept that the go-ahead is for the Greenlanders to decide. They must be OK with that. For them to be OK with it they need to be able to make an INFORMED decision. I do not believe the "decision" made by electing IA was the last word of the Greenlanders. I also do not believe Greenlanders have been well informed.
For contributors like PokememonGo and alexandria (who as I understand lives in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria):
As I understand it the main danger of naturally occuring uranium is actually NOT radiation. Anybody reading this can research what I'm saying for themselves. Naturally occuring uranium is indeed "radioactive" however it emits mainly alpha particles. There have been no known cases of humans being ever being irradiated by exposure to naturally occuring uranium. This is because alpha particles would not pass through even a sheet of paper much less your skin. Thus unlike beta or gamma particles, alpha particles and are relatively harmless.
The real danger of uranium is in its INGESTION (or inhalation). Uranium is a heavy metal like lead cadmium and so on. It is poisonous like other heavy metals if ingested in sufficient quantities and it accumulates in the body. Associated with mining naturally occuring uranium, however, is the radon gas whose release is accelerated by the extraction. Radon gas causes lung cancer and is dangerous, but mainly to the miners themselves. An open pit arrangement on top of a hill and 8 miles from human settlement would ensure that the radon gas would quickly dissapate, thus presenting no danger to anybody. Radon gas, by the way, seaps slowly out of the ground naturally even where there is no mining. Certain urban suburbs in Australia suffer from this problem leading to cancer "clusters". Some of these suburbs have even been abandoned.
Uranium is heavier on the atomic scale than lead thus uranium particles naturally sink literally "like lead". We have all heard of the accident at Chernobyl. However, the area around Chernobyl is now teeming with many species of wildlife. this wildlife is seemingly wholly unaffected by radiation.
We all know about the bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a horrible act. Even a criminal act in my view. One of the worst war crimes ever comitted. Personally I am against all nuclear weapons. However the reality is that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were never abandonned. There are millions of folk living in those 2 cities today. The majority of residents even at the time of the bombing susrvived, although some died of radiation induced illnesses later. Some of those so exposed survive to this day.
So lets get real about atomic energy global warming electricity generation technologies --- and hence uranium (and REEs) and its extraction.
Amongst the hats I wore during my longish life was business analyst in the electricity industry (in NSW). Now all of us, myself included, would like the world to imeadiately convert to using only renewable sources of energy. Electricity is an interesting commodity because in the abscance of batteries that can do the job, it must be consumed (somewhere) at the very same moment it is produced. Problem is that wind turbines only work when there is wind. Solar panels only generate electricity when there is sun. So to sustain a modern society (we all do want to do that don't we? And those "less developped countries" they want --- and deserve --- some of what we already enjoy too, don't they?) we need to be able to produce but also STORE massive amounts of electricity for times when there is no wind or no sun. Unfortunately developments in battery technology have not kept pace with green power generation technology. Lithium batteries are notoroius for their "memory effect" --- ie.they have a limitted life span. They also explode or burst into flames rather easily. Redux flow power batteries are an interesting development but are as yet far from being "mature" technology. Then there is hydro, tidal, wave power and so on.
But there is also a thing that many folk are unaware of that we used to call "Transmission Attenuation Factor" associated with the transmission of electricity. In brief this means that the load we put in at the generator end of a circuit is greater than the load delivered at the customer end. This is due to the resistance of the cable used to transmit the electricity. Hydro, tidal and wave energy are great, but the sea and/or bodies of water are not always close enough to where the energy must be consumed and the current attenuation is so great that it becomes uneconomical.
Thus the ONLY mature technology that can help us in our green revolution --- the green revolution we must have if our societies (if not out very species )is going to survice is atomic energy. There have been accidents with atomic energy. We've all heard of them. But the technology has advanced enormously, thus reducing the risk. Also nuclear energy has been responsible for far fewer casualties than any other energy technology. think mining accidents. Coal field fires. Gas explosions. The sum of those hurt is far greater than those hurt in the atomic industry.
As I said I live in France now. Here over 80% of electricity is generated from nuclear energy. There are reactors scattered throughout France. There have been very few accidents. None that were "spectacular". In fact there is a nuclear fuel processing plant within 15 kilometres of where I live. There are no abnormal cancer clusters here. France has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. so does Japan.
This is a blog for investors --- serious ones one would hope. So keep your "looney left" AND "Rabid Right" AND "Stone Deaf Greenie" commentaries to yourselves please. I am a leftist a pragmatist and an investor but most of all a REALIST.
Also many of you either fawn on or rubbish GBB. Ever thought that perhaps he is angling to buy his stake in GGG back at a knock down price. Makes sense --- sell out high, buy back in low. Smart move! Maybe he's right about some things too. Don't much like his famous American buddy, but I'd still consider voting for him as MD in place of Dr.JM if he's the one who can get this whole derailed project moving again.
PS. Before paraphrasing Cicero's famous comment "in vino veritas" ("there's truth in wine") a certain contributor should perhaps understand that he wasactually referring to wine's capacity to loosen the tongue so that those effected blurt out things what they would otherwise have kjept secret (I also studied classics at a British "public school").
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