Rio's Beyer Says Higher Uranium Prices Needed to Boost Supply
By Bloomberg News - May 13, 2011 5:30 PM GMT+0800
Rio Tinto Uranium Ltd.'s Managing Director Clark Beyer comments on uranium prices.
He spoke at a conference in Beijing today.
On current uranium prices:
"Clearly, we need higher prices to stimulate the new supply that we need to bring into the market. A lot of that supply will be coming from higher cost and lower grade mines. We're $10 to $20 short of where we're supposed to be; $55 simply doesn't get a whole lot of production going."
On next-generation reactors' impact on uranium demand:
"They are probably a good 20 to 30 years from any sort of wider application. It's just a very long 30 to 50 years to see some of these major changes in tech. All the plants being built today have improved safety standards and improved technical features, but they're not a dramatic change in the way they consume uranium and they're going to run for another 50 years."
On buying uranium supplies versus mines:
"The market works very effectively in this commodity. Signing a contract with a long-term reliable supplier is as good or better than buying equity in a mining project. When you're buying an undeveloped resource, you're buying all that risk that mining companies are familiar with and maybe utilities or power companies are not so familiar with." *
* The trouble is Mr Beyer, that with both Rossing and Ranger Mines problems, Rio Tinto Uranium may no longer be seen as a "long-term reliable supplier". I wonder how this situation might be overcome?
Regards
Steve
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