uranium news

BHP Billiton has pushed back the start date for its giant Olympic Dam copper and uranium expansion until at least 2015.This was to include digging the world’s biggest open-pit mine.In a long-awaited presentation, the mining giant was tight-lipped on development costs, which have been tipped by analysts to be $15 billion, and indicated it would not reveal them until the project was approved, in 2010 at the earliest.BHP’s ambitious plans for the deposit will see it ramp up in three major stages over 10 or 11 years, with the planned, huge pit eventually eating into the existing underground mine and mill around 2025.The end result would be a pit 7km long, 5km wide and 1km deep…………………BHP said government approval was not expected until 2010, back from an earlier target of 2008…………………..BHP is looking at a 10 to 12 year operation and said it would upgrade the feasibility study on the resource of about 35,000 tonnes of uranium oxide to determine the best way to develop it. BHP delays opening of world’s biggest pit | The Australian

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BHP Details Olympic Dam Growth, Questions Remain easybourse.com October 31st, 2008 By Alex Wilson Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES “………………analysts said questions still remain about the timing and cost of the key growth project……………..Olympic Dam is a key growth project for BHP and the update on its expansion plans has been keenly awaited, but didn’t include timing for the later stages of the expansion or an updated capital expenditure figure of the project.The company said it plans to issue its environmental impact statement for the massive project to the South Australian state government before the end of 2008 with approval to take between 12 months and 18 months………………………..Ord Minnett analyst Peter Arden, who was not on the site visit, said it was disappointing the presentation did not give a range for the cost of the project or a more definite timeline for its later stages.”It may not be that expensive or onerous, but it is just the uncertainty of it that is never ending and I don’t know why they can’t at least give some sort of ballpark figure,” he said………………..Actualité de la bourse sur Rio Tinto – RTZ : interviews, rumeurs de marchés, analyses, dossiersEasyBour

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BHP abandons plans for the new smelter at Olympic Dam THE AUSTRALIAN Gavin Lower | October 18, 2008 BHP Billiton has ruled out a new smelter for its proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.The announcement represents a blow to the South Australian Government’s hopes to maximise employment and value-added investment at the vast project.

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Radioactive alert on ethical investmentThe Age Frances Howe September 2, 2008 A RECENT Corporate Watch Australia survey reveals that many so-called ethical investment funds invest in uranium mining.Some fund managers justify investment in uranium with questionable arguments about nuclear power and climate change, but the primary reason for the shift is probably BHP Billiton’s entry into the uranium industry with its 2005 acquisition of WMC Resources, which owns the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia.Of 16 ethical investment funds studied, just two allow absolutely no investment in uranium or nuclear power.The rest either have no policy on the matter or allow limited investment in the nuclear industry…………………………rapid growth (in ethical investment) is accompanied by a crisis of definition and a dilution of its original principles. The concept “ethical investment” is vaguely defined: fund managers make their own rules, and their definitions of “ethical” vary………………..Some fund managers rule out investment in companies that get more than 5% of their revenue from uranium mining or nuclear power. This means that AMP’s ethical portfolio can still include shares in BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto — the world’s fifth and third largest uranium miners respectively………………………….There is no attempt to refute the large and growing body of scientific literature that demonstrates how the expansion of renewable energy sources, coupled with concerted energy-efficiency programs, can generate major reductions in greenhouse emissions without recourse to nuclear power.Nor have most fund managers dealt with the ethical problems associated with uranium mining and nuclear power. The uranium mining industry has a poor track record in its dealings with Aboriginal communities — failing to consult traditional owners, using divide-and-rule tactics, and ignoring sacred sites.In the words of Yvonne Margarula, Mirarr senior traditional owner in the Northern Territory: “Uranium mining has taken our country away from us and destroyed it. Mining and the millions of dollars in royalties have not improved our quality of life.”

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BHP Says Australia Needs to Ease Control Over Ports, Rail (Bloomberg) By Rebecca Keenan June 5- 2008- “BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said Australia needs to ease government control over ports and railroads ……”

Taxpayers cut BHP fuel bills CATHY ALEXANDER (AAP), CANBERRA The Advertiser 06 May 2008 – “State TAXPAYERS will subsidise the fuel bill of mining giant BHP Billiton by more than $100 million to help it work the world’s largest uranium deposit, a conservation group claims. State TAXPAYERS will subsidise the fuel bill of mining giant BHP Billiton by more than $100 million to help it work the world’s largest uranium deposit, a conservation group claims. ….

……………The foundation estimates the subsidy will be worth $29 million a year to BHP to expand Olympic Dam, where the company also mines the world’s fourth largest remaining copper deposit. “BHP does not need you and me to subsidise their diesel,” ACF executive director Don Henry said……………

…………The subsidy would be worth $117 million over the life of the study, ACF said.
Mr Henry said the fuel tax credits scheme would cost the Government $4.9 billion a year.
He has called on the Government to scrap the subsidy for the mining and transport sectors in next week’s Budget although it should be retained for farmers.
The money saved could be redirected to public transport

BHP Billiton shareholders call for moral stand on lucrative trade Jan Mayman in Perth
Monday October 1, 2007
The Guardian The world’s biggest mining company is facing a revolt from shareholders who want the group to stop excavating uranium.
Activist plan to use the annual meeting of BHP Billiton, which last year made record-breaking profits of $13.4bn (£6.7bn), to force the company to take a “moral stand” and pull out of the highly profitable trade in uranium,

Led by John Poppins, a retired engineer whose family controls more than A$1m (£434,000) worth of stock in the company, the BHP Billiton Shareholders for Social Responsibilities group hope to enlist support from conservationists, churches and unions on the shareholder register.

Mr Poppins has 60 of the 100 signatures he needs to get the issue on the agenda of the AGM in Adelaide next month, with more pledged.BHP Billiton’s outstanding commercial success and market pre-eminence carries an equally large moral obligation to provide leadership on issues of uranium production and nuclear proliferation,’ he said……….

………He is concerned that the Australian government has recently declared its support for uranium sales to Russia and India. And the notion that uranium was a clean fuel was wrong, he said. ‘Claims that uranium is ‘carbon-free’ completely ignore the substantial carbon costs of its mining, processing, power station construction, protection and disposal,’he said.
Mr Poppins was an engineer in computing and aviation before retiring to take up ethical investment issues………………………..”

BHP delays opening of world’s biggest pit THE AUSTRALIAN Matt Chambers | November 01, 2008Bloated, Hyped-up, Propaganda, Bubble BHP Billiton has pushed back the start date for its giant Olympic Dam copper and uranium expansion until at least 2015.This was to include digging the world’s biggest open-pit mine.In a long-awaited presentation, the mining giant was tight-lipped on development costs, which have been tipped by analysts to be $15 billion, and indicated it would not reveal them until the project was approved, in 2010 at the earliest.BHP’s ambitious plans for the deposit will see it ramp up in three major stages over 10 or 11 years, with the planned, huge pit eventually eating into the existing underground mine and mill around 2025.The end result would be a pit 7km long, 5km wide and 1km deep…………………BHP said government approval was not expected until 2010, back from an earlier target of 2008…………………..BHP is looking at a 10 to 12 year operation and said it would upgrade the feasibility study on the resource of about 35,000 tonnes of uranium oxide to determine the best way to develop it. BHP delays opening of world’s biggest pit | The Australian

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