ASX:NEL Ban held on WA uranium reserves Ban held on WA uranium...

ASX:NEL Ban held on WA uranium reserves


Ban held on WA uranium reserves
By Barry Fitzgerald
March 31, 2006

PRESSURE continues to build on the West Australian Government to lift its ban on development of the state's uranium deposits.

The ban had locked up uranium that could generate $15 billion at current boom prices, the Uranium Conference in Adelaide was told yesterday.

Nova Energy chairman Tim Sugden said his group's Wiluna uranium deposit in central WA could generate $1 billion at current uranium prices.

"We believe you could multiply that figure by 15 times if all the potential projects in Western Australia could be developed," he said.

Despite the recent confirmation by WA's new Premier, Alan Carpenter, that the ban would remain in place, Mr Sugden predicted it would be overturned in the next two years.

WA's ban on uranium mining, and that of the federal Labor Party, is at odds with the South Australian Government's active encouragement of the uranium industry.

South Australia's Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Paul Holloway, told the conference that the current policy of preventing the development of new uranium mines should be changed.

"The ALP's uranium policy is certainly an anachronism," he said. "Now is the time for a change in policy to allow South Australia's competitive advantage in uranium to come to the fore."

Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane has previously attacked the WA Government for locking up the uranium.

Mr Macfarlane, in a speech read by the head of resources at the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, John Hartwell, said around the world, uranium was coming in from the cold.

Developing economies such as China's were eager to buy Australian uranium because they considered nuclear energy a reliable and clean source of energy. It was up to the industry to demonstrate the benefits uranium mining could bring.

Next week, Australia and China will sign a bilateral uranium safeguards agreement, clearing the way for Australian uranium exports to China.

Also at the conference, lobby group Uranium Information Centre said nuclear power would be economic in Australia if the full environmental costs of coal-fired electricity were reflected in power prices.