senior liberals to vote against mining mt gee, page-3

South Australia can provide the world with 1/3 of its uranium, without needing to mine in a pristine wilderness area.

Mt Gee is a low grade deposit, that was initially explored and evaluated by CRA as low cost open pit mine with a cutoff grade of 0.1% U3O8. It was explores at a time when environmental concerns and costs are not what they are today.

Now Marathon wants to mine underground, and to do so requires an 8km long tunnel.
Initial Costs for mine development according to Marathon is $500M.

How many years will it take them to dig an 8 Km of tunnel.....

Can they really build 8Km of tunnel, ventilation shafts, Uranium processing plant, water pipeline, power plant, for $500M

Now compare Mt Gee to Olympic Dam..
Olympic Dam was actually scheduled to close, as an underground operation it was marginal.
Hence BHP deciding to turn this into a big pit.

So BHP the worlds biggest miner thinks that 1.1% Copper 0.03% Uranium and 1g per tonne gold is not economic as an underground operation.
85% of Olympic Dams revenue is from Copper and Gold, not Uranium.

Ranger, Australias largest Open Pit uranium mine has a cutoff grade of 0.08% and there tailings contain 0.015% Uranium

Marathon reckons they can make an average grade of 0.06% Uranium, Economic from an underground operation, that requires an 8Km long tunnel and in an environmentally sensitive environment.

Can't wait to see their Bankable Feasability Study that they will need to supply to the government before mining can commence.

What do you reckon the chances are of borrowing $500M for a questionable uranium project in this financial climate.