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Ranger uranium mine in danger of floods

January 29, 2012

Australia’s ERA warns rains to hit uranium output again SYDNEY, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Energy Resources of Australia warned on Thursday that recent flooding caused by monsoon rains in northern Australia will continue to restrict its production of uranium in 2012.

Production at the company’s Ranger mine — which in previous years supplied as much as 10 percent of the world’s uranium — was halted by heavy rains in early in 2011 and did not resume until mid-June.

A second deluge in December that dumped record rains across parts of the tropical Northern Territory meant ERA would be unable to readily mine richer ores at the bottom of the lode, it said.

“As a result, access to the high grade ore located at the bottom of the pit will be delayed and is highly dependent on rainfall
experienced for the remainder of the 2011/2012 wet season,” said ERA, 68 percent owned by Rio Tinto but separately listed on the Australian bourse….. Analyst are expecting the company to show a loss on earnings before interest and tax of around A$61 million against a profit of A$68.4 million in 2010.

The stock has plummeted more than 80 percent in the last 12 months, in part due to negative sentiment toward uranium companies following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan last March…..
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E8CB8ZU20120111?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

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Uranium prices falling steadily over past year

January 2, 2012

Fukushima affects uranium stocks, Star Tribune, 18 DecShare prices of global uranium majors continue to suffer the aftereffects of an earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant last March.
That’s the assessment of Sydney, Australia-based Resource Capital Research, which noted share prices for selected companies have declined substantially.
An analysis noted that Cameco shares declined by nearly 50 percent over the past year, while Uranium One shares had dropped by nearly 45 percent. Energy Resources of Australia stock fell by 82.1 percent.
“The Merril Lynch Uranium Equity Index (a global basket of uranium equities) is down 2 percent over the past month, down 7 percent over three months and down 54 percent over the past 12 months,” the firm said in a report earlier this month. …..
The uranium spot price was pegged at $52.25, down from $67.75 prior to the Fukushima disaster. In the near-term, Resource Capital Research said Fukushima will continue to weigh on the market, “including Germany’s decision to
close reactors and the potential for disposal of surplus utility inventory.”…..

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Australia’s National Register of radiation doses does not count Northern Territory uranium workers

October 30, 2011

NT URANIUM WORKERS STILL NOT ON NATIONAL REGISTER, GREENS SAY, Safe To Work, By Cole Latimer 20 October 2011 Uranium miners in the Northern Territory are still not on the National Radiation Dose Register, Greens senator Scott Ludlam says. It comes five months after Ludlam originally brought the issue to bear in May, with Ludlam today again quizzing representatives from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency on this issue.

“In July 2010 the register began collecting data on the radiation doses to which workers had been exposed. There are now over 18,000 workers on the database – covering about five years – but there is no information at all on the radiation workers have been exposed to at the Ranger Mine in the Northern Territory. We revealed this in May, and urged the Territory and Federal authorities to address it. ARPANSA told us today that nothing has changed, and to raise the issue with the office of energy and resources minister Martin Ferguson,” Ludlam said in a recent statement.

“We will write to Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson to encourage urgent action to fix this problem.” The national register was created as a central database to track radiation dose histories of miners….. Under this new development, information on radiation doses will be sent to a central register, where miners can then access their personal records.

“Excluding work in the Northern Territory is a huge crack in the system, and it was revealed five months ago and NT uranium mine workers are still off the radiation dose radar. The system will only have integrity if all radiation doses are included,” Ludlam says….. http://www.safetowork.com.au/news/nt-uranium-workers-still-not-on-national-register

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Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia desperate for shareholders to provide $500 million

October 16, 2011

ERA begging for $500m boost, The Age Barry FitzGerald October 13, 2011 THE fall from grace of Rio Tinto-controlled Energy Resources of Australia has become absolute, with the Ranger uranium miner going cap in hand to shareholders for $500 million in equity funding in a heavily discounted rights issue.

The 12-for-7 underwritten issue of new shares at $1.53 a share represents a near 30 per cent discount on ERA’s share price before the stock went into a trading halt. The funds will go a long way to overcoming ERA’s water-handling issues, as well as funding potential mine life-extending activities….. Rio is also to act as sub-underwriter to the equity raising. Should that role be fully utilised, its holding in ERA could increase to 82 per cent, reducing liquidity in what is an already thinly traded stock.

ERA has been producing uranium at Ranger for 30 years and is only the second mine in the world to have produced more than 100,000 tonnes of uranium. But its shares have been in free fall for the past 12 months on the realisation that despite the long production history, it has not been on top of the environmental threat that a record big wet in Kakadu poses.

The build-up of water around the mine and in its pits forced the decision in January to suspend processing operations as a ”precautionary measure” to ensure levels in the operation’s tailings storage dam remained below the authorised limit. More rain forced a further suspension to late July…..

Rio’s decision to back ERA’s equity raising suggests Rio is confident that ERA’s Jabiluka deposit near Ranger might one day be developed.

Jabiluka is one of the biggest undeveloped uranium deposits in the world but its development is being vetoed by traditional owners. http://www.theage.com.au/business/era-begging-for-500m-boost-20111012-1ll13.html#ixzz1ahltBWq2

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Rio Tinto tries to put on a cheerful face about uranium industry’s future

October 4, 2011

Rio Tinto hopes for a short nuclear slowdown, The Australian, Dow Jones Newswires , September 23, 2011 JAPAN’S Fukushima nuclear accident in March has damaged the credibility of the uranium mining industry and will slow nuclear power growth for up to two years, predicts a Rio Tinto executive…..

The medium-term outlook for uranium, the key fuel for nuclear reactors, remains clouded in the wake of the Fukushima crisis.The crisis began in March when explosions crippled the Fukushima reactor complex following the country’s devastating earthquake and tsunami. Rio Tinto is a major uranium producer via its majority ownership of Energy Resources of Australia and the huge Rossing Uranium mine in Namibia….

Mr Lloyd said that, in addition to uncertainty about demand, the “high capital cost” of new nuclear reactors might be an issue for the sector as it sought to attract funding in coming years. ……http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/rio-tinto-hopes-for-a-short-nuclear-slowdown/story-e6frg9df-1226144025698

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Uranium prices and shares ever downward

September 9, 2011

Uranium prices plunge causing issues for Australian producers, Herald Sun, Greg Roberts ,September 07, 2011 URANIUM prices have fallen back to levels last seen after Japan’s nuclear accident in March, causing further grief to struggling Australian producers.

The uranium spot price is $US48.85 ($A46.04) a pound, having plummeted from $US67.75 to $US49 immediately after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The spot price had recovered to about $US56.50 after the Fukushima accident. Analyst group Resource Capital Research says the dynamics driving the sector have changed in the aftermath of the meltdown, with Germany planning to close all 17 of its nuclear power reactors by 2022.

The “fund implied price” – an indicator of market price expectations – is signalling a further fall in the spot price to $US45.95. The Merrill Lynch Uranium Equity Index, which measures the performance of uranium equities, has fallen 19 per cent over the past month.

It is down 27 per cent over the past three months and 23 per cent over the past year, according to the latest quarterly report by Resource Capital Research. Shares in Australia’s largest uranium producer, the Rio Tinto-backed Energy Resources of Australia, have fallen 13 per cent in the past month and 73 per cent in the past year.

A year ago, ERA shares were $13.49, compared with $3.65 now, with the company posting a $122 million half-year net loss. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/uranium-prices-plunge-causing-issues-for-australian-producers/story-fn7j19iv-1226130940686

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Australia’s uranium mining industry propaganda – not very confident

September 9, 2011

“…an extended period of uncertainty…..A mistake by one operator or explorer or project developer in our industry affects all of us.”

Fukushima puts Australia’s uranium industry on the defensive Independent Australia, 2 Sept 11, The Australian nuclear industry feels the heat after the Fukushima calamity, but spins on gamely. Noel Wauchope reports.

With plummeting uranium prices, and increasinglybad news about Fukushima radiation, Australia’s uranium industry is well and truly on the back foot. But the industry battles on with religious fervour in its belief in the future uranium boom. (more…)

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Protect Australia’s precious Kakadu from uranium mining destruction

July 30, 2011

little wonder that Ranger has been hammered by the market and described as Rio Tinto’s ”major shame in this country”…. the cold hard fact remains that no modern uranium mine has ever undertaken large-scale acid heap leaching let alone in the monsoonal tropics surrounded by a renowned World-Heritage site…

The time has come for the Northern Territory regulator the Department of Resources and the Commonwealth adviser, the Office of the Supervising Scientist, to ensure that ERA and the Ranger site addresses the systemic failures in tailings and water management and ends the habit of unnecessary risk taking. .

Need for greater mining rules to protect Kakadu, Canberra Times, BY GAVIN MUDD, 15 Jul, 2011 Plans to expand the Ranger uranium operations pose big dangers. Inside Australia’s largest national park lies one of the country’s most controversial mines. Earlier this year it came close to a serious failure that would have contaminated Kakadu, effectively forever. Now, instead of heeding the warning signs, it wants to expand. (more…)

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ERA not likely to go ahead with leach uranium project at Ranger uranium mine

July 30, 2011

Like the rest of the uranium producers and explorers, ERA’s sharemarket rating has been hit by the fallout for uranium demand expectations from the Fukushima nuclear-power meltdown in March……..Analysts believe that ERA is unlikely to commit to the heap-leach project while Ranger continues to struggle with water-handling issues. The mine is surrounded by Kakadu National Park.

Rio Tinto on fire despite drenched Ranger, Sydney Morning Herald, Barry Fitzgerald, July 14, 2011“…….Water-handling issues at ERA’s Ranger mine in the Northern Territory have savaged the operation’s production levels. In the June half, production collapsed by 65 per cent to 601 tonnes of the radioactive material….

ERA is still a fraction of the company it was in October last year when it shares were selling at $14.78. The value hit stands at more than $2 billion, most of which is worn by Rio as ERA’s 68 per cent shareholder. Like the rest of the uranium producers and explorers, ERA’s sharemarket rating has been hit by the fallout for uranium demand expectations from the Fukushima nuclear-power meltdown in March. (more…)

Posted in economics, ERA, in-situ leach | Leave a Comment »

ERA’s Ranger uranium mine – inadequate radioactive waste water plan

July 9, 2011

the company is not planning to start processing its radioactive waste water for two more wet seasons.

Mr Mudd says a higher dam wall will mean the company will have even more radioactive water to process.

“In that sense it is still the temporary, sort of step-by-step measures,”

Ranger uranium waste water treatment plan attacked, ABC News, By Jane Bardon, 5 July 11 An environmental engineer says Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) should not have reopened its uranium mine within Kakadu National Park last month without committing to a waste water treatment plan. (more…)

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