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New South Wales Resources Minister telling a furphy to the Indians about uranium mning

May 6, 2012

Who is telling the truth?   New South Wales Minister for Resources, Mr Hartcher?   or the Queensland government?

In fact, both States  prohibit uranium mining.   New South Wales has recently allowed uranium exploration only.

THE HINDU 4 May 2012,   reports that  New South Wales Minister for Resources and Energy and Central Coast Christopher Peter Hartcher announced on Friday that both New South Wales and Queensland State governments in Australia had changed their laws which prohibited mining and sale of uranium.

Also Mr Hartcher is quoted “We also respect India’s decision on not signing the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT)”  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3384772.ece

 

See this article - No plans for uranium mining ban rethink   http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-02/no-plans-for-uranium-mining-ban-rethink/3984350?section=business   By Stephen Smiley ABC News May 02, 2012   “The State Government says it has no plans to revisit Queensland’s ban on uranium mining.”

Queensland Premier Newman has recently reiterated the position that uranium mining is banned in Queensland.

And as for  Mr Hartcher “respecting” India’s decision on the NPT, he is in the minority.  Most Australians are appalled at the idea of selling uranium to a country that won’t sign the NPT.

Posted in politics | Leave a Comment »

BHP blaming Australian government for the doubts about future of new big Olympic Dam uranum mine?

May 6, 2012

You have to sorta scour the news, to realise that the BHP board has not yet decided to go ahead with the new monster Olympic Dam uranium mine.   The decision delay is due to the massive cost of the massive project – which won’t make any money for decades.

However – let’s all pounce on the Australian government’s budget plans as the  cause of the delay. (Let’s just forget that the project benefits from all sorts og government exemptions, including the new Mining Resources Tax)

Diesel rebate may delay Olympic Dam Sun Herald, by: By Christopher Russell AdelaideNow May 03, 2012 BHP Billiton could be forced to delay expansion of the Olympic Dam mine if the Federal Government scraps its diesel fuel rebate in next week’s Budget, investment analysts say.

The company hinted at an investors’ conference in Sydney yesterday that another major project, at Port Hedland in WA, would be funded before Olympic Dam. Analysts at the conference said a fuel tax change could make the
difference and cause a delay to Olympic Dam….. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/diesel-rebate-may-delay-olympic-dam/story-fn7j19iv-1226345385388

Posted in BHP Billiton, economics, Olympic Dam | Leave a Comment »

Doctors expose Toro Energy’s promotion of quack science about ionising radiation

May 6, 2012

We call on Toro Energy to stop promoting fringe scientific views to uranium industry workers and to  the public at large.

The Medical Association for Prevention of War has released a statement signed by 45 medical doctors calling on uranium mining company Toro Energy to stop promoting the view that low-level radiation is beneficial to human health. Toro Energy, which plans to mine uranium at Wiluna in WA and has interests in uranium exploration ventures in the NT and SA, has sponsored speaking tours by controversial Canadian scientist Doug Boreham. The joint statement notes that recent research has heightened rather than reduced concern about the adverse health impacts of low-level radiation.

TORO ENERGY PROMOTES RADIATION JUNK SCIENCE , Statement by 45 doctors – (signatures at end ) 1 May 2012
Toro Energy is an Australian company involved in uranium exploration in Western Australia, the  Northern Territory, South Australia and in Namibia, Africa. The company’s most advanced project is  the proposed Wiluna uranium mine in the WA Goldfields.
Toro Energy has consistently promoted the fringe scientific view that exposure to low-level radiation  is harmless. Toro Energy has sponsored at least three speaking visits to Australia by Canadian  scientist Dr Doug Boreham, who argues that low-level radiation is actually beneficial to human health.
Those views are at odds with mainstream scientific evidence and expert assessment. For example: (more…)

Posted in spinbuster | Leave a Comment »

Goliath and David – BHP and Australian govt will punish Aboriginal elder for opposing uranium mine expansion

May 6, 2012
DEMOCRACY AT A PRICE: DECISION BY BHP BILLITON AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO SEEK COSTS FROM ARABUNNA ELDER PUNITIVE AND VINDICTIVE,   1st May 2012 The Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA) is deeply concerned by the decision of BHP Billiton and the Federal Government to seek costs from Arabunna elder uncle Kevin Buzzacott arising from his challenge of the Federal approval of the Olympic Dam expansion.

“ANFA members fully support Uncle Kevin and admire his stand for country. We know that history will be the fairest judge of this struggle. BHP and the minister who approved the expansion of Olympic Dam will be forever linked to the toxic legacy of this mine, for thousands of years to come,” said Larrakia woman Donna Jackson, co-chair of ANFA.

“The court decided that Kevin Buzzacott had standing to pursue this challenge, as is his right under both the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act and the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act,” said ANFA Committe member Nectaria Calan. “Where does this leave the right to judicial review of such projects if those who seek such a review are then punished with costs?”

Dean Della Vale, president of BHP’s Uranium Customer Sector Group which is responsible for the Olympic Dam project, is a founding member of the Australian Uranium Associations Indigenous Dialogue Group, established to facilitate dialogue with traditional owners.

“BHP  pursuing costs undermines any claims by the Indigenous Dialogue Group that they are seeking to engage with aboriginal communities in good faith. Aboriginal communities do not have the right to say no to mining on their land, and here we have an elder using one of the few legal options available to them to ensure that at least the impacts of the project were properly considered, and they may be facing a massive bill for doing so,” said Ms Calan.

“The message BHP are sending is that there are repercussions for taking on the mining giant. Last financial year the company recorded a total net profit of US$23. 95 billion – they certainly don’t need the money,” Ms Calan concluded.

Posted in legal | Leave a Comment »

Australia provides fuel for nuclear weapons. Call to government to stop this

April 28, 2012

Chernobyl anniversary: Time for Australian government action on uranium, 28 April 12,  On the anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident the Australian Conservation Foundation has called on the federal government to improve nuclear safety and stop literally fuelling nuclear insecurity.

On 26 April 1986, a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine melted down and spewed radioactive materials across Europe and beyond. The human, environmental and economic impacts of the accident were profound and continue.

“Chernobyl literally exploded the myth of the ‘peaceful atom’ and caused many nations to reconsider the risks and costs of nuclear power,” said ACF nuclear free campaigner Dave Sweeney.

“On the anniversary of Chernobyl and in the continuing shadow of Fukushima it is important Australia also reviews and reconsiders the costs and consequences of our involvement in the global nuclear trade as a significant supplier of uranium – the basic fuel for both nuclear power and nuclear weapons.”

Last year it was confirmed in the federal Parliament that Australian uranium was in the failed Fukushima reactor and is now causing contamination in Japan.  However the federal government has failed to act on calls – including from the UN Secretary General – to review the industry.

ACF has called for the federal government to learn from Chernobyl and Fukushima and:

  • ·         Commission an independent assessment of the environmental and social impacts of uranium mining in Australia (as recommended in the UN review into the Fukushima crisis)
  • ·         Stop selling uranium to nuclear weapon states pending an independent review of importing countries’ compliance with international disarmament obligations
  • ·         Strengthen international and multi-lateral initiatives by including specific performance requirements and review mechanisms in new and existing Agreements and contracts

“Uranium is the asbestos of the 21st Century: like asbestos, the product works, but at too high a cost – and like asbestos Australia will one day stop mining and supplying it. In the meantime we need to step up to our responsibilities and review and address the impacts of the uranium trade. To fail to do so is to fail to learn from the lessons of Chernobyl and Fukushima and to fail to stop the next nuclear disaster,” Mr Sweeney said.

Posted in politics, safety, weapons and war | Leave a Comment »

South Australia allows lease to nuclear weapons connected uranium company

April 28, 2012

This is a disgrace – the South Australian government furthering the nuclear weapons industry by allowing Quasar, with its connections to nuclear weapons, to start a uranium mine in S.A.

Four Mile uranium mine gets lease Adelaide Now, by: Julian Swallow  April 27, 2012 ALLIANCE Resources and its joint venture partner Quasar Resources have been granted a 10-year mineral lease over their Four Mile project, ending months of negotiations. Mineral Resources minister Tom Koutsantonis said on Friday that South Australia was a step closer to its next major uranium mining development. However, no timetable or funding commitment has as yet been made by the venture partners, who remain locked in a legal dispute…… (more…)

Posted in politics, Quasar, weapons and war | Leave a Comment »

With its share price collapse, ERA will shut down its Ranger uranium mine

April 28, 2012

Doncha love the headline from this Sydney Morning Herald article about the uranium company Energy Resources of Australia?  Anyone would think that the company had wonderful prospects.   But readthe lines (you don’t need to read between the lines) – and you see the true picture –  colossal share price loss, closure of the Ranger open pit mine, and a laughable future prospect for their plan for an underground uranium mine.

From a share price of $18.22 in May 2009, the stock lost more than 90 per cent of its value to be languishing at $1.15 earlier this year, with the company’s future being seriously questioned. 

Kakadu’s miner for all seasons SMH, Peter Ker April 28, 2012 After three decades as a major uranium producer in Australia’s top end, Atkinson’s company Energy Resources of Australia is about to fill in its massive open pit and return the landscape to something resembling the nearby Kakadu National Park.

In a reversal of the typical path taken by mining companies, ERA is about to go from producer to explorer, gambling its future on the viability of a deposit deep beneath its existing operations….

… ERA has spent the past 30 years digging uranium from a small province surrounded on all sides by Kakadu National Park. The company operates here at the grace of the indigenous community, which has long been reluctant to see any more of its land developed for mining. The NT’s extraordinary wet seasons add another
challenge,….. On more than one occasion, heavy rains halted production for months at a time and threatened [did!]  to spill toxic tailings into the nearby environment. Other operational problems also caused delays, and they unfolded
against a backdrop of decline in the company’s flagship Ranger open pit, now reaching the end of its working life.
From a share price of $18.22 in May 2009, the stock lost more than 90 per cent of its value to be languishing at $1.15 earlier this year, with the company’s future being seriously questioned…… (more…)

Posted in economics, ERA, Ranger | Leave a Comment »

BHP Billiton’s uranium rush to grab South Australia

April 28, 2012

BHP Steps Up Its Olympic Ambitions, WSJ,   By Stephen Bell, April 24, 2012,  BHP Billiton is a fully paid-up believer in the mining theory of ‘nearology’ if its latest Australian land grab is anything to go by. The Anglo-Australian miner has tabled applications for exploration licenses covering more than 10,000 square kilometers in arid regions surrounding the huge Olympic Dam copper-gold–uranium mine  in South Australia state……

BHP is expected to make a decision this year on whether to proceed with an expansion at Olympic Dam, a project analysts estimate could cost close to US$30 billion. (more…)

Posted in BHP Billiton, economics | Leave a Comment »

Paladin Uranium’s financial problems

April 28, 2012

Paladin Energy under pressure to flog assets   The Australian, BY: ROSS KELLY  Wall Street Journal April 26, 2012   PALADIN Energy still needs to offload assets to meet looming debt payments and funding requirements, according to Citigroup, which has nominated two of the uranium miner’s non-producing assets in Australia and Canada as possible candidates for divestment……“If the cash squeeze became very acute on Paladin the company could also look to sell an interest in a producing asset,” Citigroup says.

Posted in economics, Paladin | Leave a Comment »

Aboriginal elder loses case against Australian government: Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act ineffective?

April 28, 2012

MINING GIANT SEEKS COSTS FROM ARABUNNA ELDER AFTER RULING ON CHALLENGE TO FEDERAL APPROVAL OF THE OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION 20 April 12, In a packed courtroom today Justice Besanko dismissed Uncle Kevin Buzzacott’s challenge of the Federal approval of the Olympic Dam expansion. The judge did not discuss his reasons in the court.

Both BHP and the Federal government are seeking costs from Kevin Buzzacott. The hearing was held in the Federal Court on the 3rd and 4th April, after which the Judge reserved his judgement. Both BHP Billiton and the South Australian government had successfully sought to become parties to the proceedings.

“The speed with which this decision was made suggests pressure to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so as not to impact the project,” said Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.

“The judgement is really a product of the constrained nature of such administrative challenges. It really rests on interpretation of two pieces of legislation which govern the Ministers approval. The merits of the project were never on the table for discussion.”

“If such an approval with so many future plans yet to be approved constitutes a proper approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act, how can such an open-ended  project be judicially reviewed?” said Ms Calan. “The question we are left with is whether the EPBC Act protects the environment,” Ms Calan continued.

“This is a very sad day,” said applicant Kevin Buzzacott. “We offered the judge the issue on a platter, and he wasted an opportunity to make changes that will reverberate in this nation for thousands of years.”

“But we’re not going away. This isn’t over yet,” Mr Buzzacott concluded. Both Kevin Buzzacott and Nectaria Calan will be available for comment on the details of the ruling early next week once the lengthy judgement has been considered.

Posted in BHP Billiton, legal, Olympic Dam | Leave a Comment »

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