Uranium hunt could have sour fallout
The Age BARRY FITZGERALD AND MATHEW MURPHYSeptember 30, 2009“…..the market for uranium could normally be taken to suggest that the uranium price should be taking off.
But it is not. In in contrast with the rest of the metals sector since mid-February, uranium prices have been going backwards. That is why questions are being asked about the viability of the uranium exploration hunt by so many of the ASX-listed explorers, particularly when the journey from discovery to mine can take more than 10 years in this highly regulated sector.
The spot price for uranium – it is a small market but a good indicator of price nevertheless – hit a record $US136 a pound in June 2007. The most recently quoted price by Ux Consulting was $US42 ($48) a pound.
Hedge and investment fund activity in the market has evaporated in the wake of the now waning global financial crisis, leaving uranium prices to real market forces. …….’As a result of these lower grades, and/or location in higher-cost geographical regions, next-generation projects will have higher operating costs, on average, than current producers,” CRU said in its Next Generation Uranium – at what cost? report.
It is against that backdrop that more than 3000 uranium projects around the world – many of them in Australia – are competing to get to the front of the queue when it comes to producing the required additional mine supplies of uranium……………….
Ziggy Switkowski, chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, has no doubt that the world is ”going to get more involved in nuclear power more emphatically than what has been acknowledged”.
But he does not see uranium production presenting any ”show stoppers” for at least the next couple of decades.
Uranium hunt could have sour fallout
Tags: antinuclear, Australia, business and costs, uranium
