mention in bloomberg

Talks about the next mines - Beverly4 and CUY. cuy is mentioned first - (so it must be bigger & more important!)

Australian Labor Party Must End Ban on Uranium Mines, Rann Says

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian Labor Party, which rules all the states in the country, must scrap a ban on new uranium mines and allow investments to boost exports of the nuclear fuel, South Australian Premier Mike Rann said.

The 25-year-old policy is ``outdated and illogical'' and hasn't worked as intended as Australia's uranium exports have tripled in that period, he said today. Rann said he intends to talk to Labor colleagues to seek a change in the policy at a vote at the party's national conference later this month.

Australia, which has no nuclear power production, has about 40 percent of the world's known low-cost uranium reserves yet provides about 23 percent of supplies due to the mining ban. Prices for the nuclear fuel have more than doubled in a year due to rising demand for producing electricity with lower carbon emissions than coal-fired plants.

``I cannot think of anything more important, politically and symbolically, for the whole resources sector than to see that this illogical and outdated policy is ended when the Party's national conference is held later this month,'' Rann said at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in Adelaide, South Australia. The policy ``does stand in the way of the further development of our state's huge potential.''

South Australia has two operating uranium mines, including BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Olympic Dam mine, and a third, approved ahead of an expected change in the Labor Party's policy, due to start within 12 months. Others are in planning, such as Curnamona Energy Ltd.'s Oban prospect, the Beverley Four Mile deposit owned by Alliance Resources Ltd. and Heathgate Resources Pty.'s Quasar Resources Pty unit.

BHP's proposed expansion of Olympic Dam would make it a bigger producer than Canada, the world's largest supplier of uranium, Rann said. The Premier has, however, ruled out using nuclear power within the state.

Rann's position on boosting uranium exports while ruling out using nuclear power is ``inconsistent and doesn't make sense,'' Federal Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said at a media briefing at the conference. The federal government supports having a discussion in Australia on whether to introduce nuclear power, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith through the Sydney newsroom at [email protected] .

Last Updated: April 16, 2007 06:42 EDT