uranium news

Open cut operations cease at Ranger uranium mine, Australian Mining 11 December, 2012 Cole Latimer Energy Resources of Australia’s Ranger uranium mine has finally stopped open cut mining, after three decades of operation.

It comes as the mine further explores its underground Ranger 3 Deeps project after receiving approvals for a prefeasibility study earlier this year.

ERA is now backfilling its Three Deeps pit after it extracted the last of the ore from Pit 3 in the last week of November, several weeks ahead of schedule, the company says….

Ranger uranium miner ERA predicts loss of up to $60m, BY: BARRY FITZGERALD   The Australian June 20, 2012 RANGER uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia has flagged a $50 million to $60m loss for the first half.

The forecast loss by the listed Rio Tinto subsidiary was made by the company in presentation notes filed with the ASX ahead of a two-day tour by analysts of the Northern Territory mine….

.. Earlier this month, ERA approved $57m for expenditure on a study into the potential of the Ranger 3 Deeps mine. A decision on its viability is due in late
2014.

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…)

Era adds A$251m to Ranger closure plan  By: Esmarie Swanepoel, Mining Weekly, 11th April 2012 PERTH   - The CEO of uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia (Era), Rob Atkinson on Wednesday told shareholders that the company had increased the provision for the closure of its Ranger mine, in the Northern Territory, from A$314-million to A$565-million, following a desktop review.

At the company’s annual general meeting, Atkinson said that the miner would continue investigating its closure plan during the remainder of 2012…… He noted that the revised plan would support a review of the rehabilitation cost estimate, later this year.

Spot Uranium Grafting, 9 News Finance, 13 April 12,    ”………Activity in general remains sluggish, and while two transactions were reported last week in the term market they were both pretty small by term market standards…

..Energy Resources of Australia managed a 5% price increase over the quarter but remains in thebalance. The company has elected to spend $120m to explore the underground potential at its premier Ranger mine in the northern territory, known as the Ranger Deeps project.

If ERA decides the Deeps is not a commercially viable proposition, Ranger is destined to quietly shut down. Merrills suggests known reserves are unlikely to last beyond this year and stockpiles would be gone in 3-4 years.
Meanwhile, Merrills has ceased coverage of Extract Resources post takeover and its impending de-listing this week.

The broker has also taken the opportunity to review its uranium price forecasts to account for weaker Japanese demand now apparent one year after Fukushima. The analysts’ 2012 spot price forecast falls to US$56.25/lb from US$58.50/lb and 2013 to US$67.50/lb from US$70.00/lb. Merrills’ long term price drops to US$63.00/lb from US$65.00/lb.  …
http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newscolumnists/greg/8449091/spot-uranium-grafting