..must be close to PER and finance and respectibility, Malcolm's on the front page promoting his company to win the Yellowcake Cup. Oh well, hope he's right. Read on...
Print this page World scrambles for NT uranium By NIGEL ADLAM 19aug05
The Territory is at the centre of an extraordinary scramble for uranium.
Sixteen companies have taken out dozens of exploration licences. They are spending more than $10 million a year and employing about 50 workers.
But Minerals Council chief executive Kezia Purick said the industry would be worth billions of dollars and employ hundreds of people when mines start opening.
The first could be in production within four years following Canberra's overruling of Territory Government objections to more mines.
The Territory is believed to have at least 15 per cent of the world's economically recoverable uranium.
Along with South Australia, it also has the richest ore bodies.
"This makes Australian uranium the cheapest in the world to mine," Ms Purick said.
The Ranger mine in Kakadu makes up 7 per cent of the NT's economic activity.
"And that's just one mine," Ms Purick said.
The first new mine is likely to be at Batchelor, 110km south of Darwin.
Sydney's Compass Resources is believed to have identified an economical deposit of the mineral.
Company director Malcolm Humphreys said: "From go to whoa, we could be operating in about four years. That's very fast."
The yellowcake would be trucked north to Darwin and exported.
The boom is so frenzied Perth-based Regency Mines managing director Ken Watson took out an ad in the Northern Territory News asking to buy uranium properties.
"I want to plug some uranium into my companies," he said. "The Territory is the flavour of the month because the Federal
Government has moved in and said, 'stuff you blokes -- we're getting on with uranium mining'.
"The Territory is about to get its time in the sun."
Another uranium miner, Perth's Cazaly Resources, has applied for an exploration licence at Hart's Range, northeast of Alice Springs.
