Queensland Government Called On To Lift Uranium Ban

AUSTRALIA'S uranium sector has renewed its attack on the Queensland government for continually rejecting mining yellowcake in the sunshine state.

Alan Eggers, the man who had built Queensland's most successful uranium explorer, Summit Resources, said the ban was irrational and illogical.

"It is a political ban that has no basis of science, health or safety or commercial or any other area," he said at yesterday's Brisbane mining conference.

"It is time Queensland and the public of Queensland woke up and got into this business, which is a very safe business to be in, which will create a lot of jobs and a lot of royalties and wealth and knowledge and technology for the state."

Toro Energy managing director Greg Hall told the conference the government's list of reasons for continuing its ban on uranium mining did not stand up.

The Queensland Labor government has continually said it has no plans to lift its ban on uranium mining.

"There have been multiple reasons why the Queensland government has decided that uranium mining is not suitable for this state," Mr Hall said.

"It started some time ago, with the government saying that it didn't want competition for coal and there was an expensive report done that proved that uranium was not competition for coal."

Mr Hall added that another concern was competition for funds during the global financial crisis, which he said had not been an issue as many uranium companies had recently raised capital.

"The people of Queensland have to rethink why is the government against uranium mining?" he said.

"Is it a throwback to old 1970s rhetoric or is it something that is genuinely there?"

In contrast, Western Australia is now full steam ahead with uranium activity after Premier Colin Barnett's Liberal Party lifted the ban on mining yellowcake last year.

South Australia, with BHP's massive Olympic Dam mine, and the Northern Territory, with ERA's Ranger mine, are both pro-uranium. Victoria and NSW have blanket bans on both exploring and mining

uranium.

Geological Survey of Western Australia executive director Tim Griffin said the industry was excited when Mr Barnett lifted the uranium ban.

"There is a lot of new work going on in Western Australia on the exploration side, but more particularly in trying to get a mine up and running in the next fours years and the industry is confident it can do that," he said.

"The government is definitely supporting that target and (is) focused on trying to make the changes to allow that to happen."

Toro slams Queensland Government Over Uranium Mining Ban

TORO Energy has attacked the Queensland Government for its continued rejection of uranium mining in the sunshine state.

Managing director Greg Hall told the Brisbane Mining Conference today that the government’s list of reasons for continuing its ban on uranium mining didn’t stand up.

The Queensland Labor government has continually said it has no plans to lift its ban on uranium mining.

“There have been multiple reasons why the Queensland Government has decided that uranium mining is not suitable for this state,” he said.

“It started sometime ago, with the government saying that it didn’t want competition for coal and there was an expensive report done that proved that uranium was not competition for coal."

Mr Hall added that another concern was competition for funds during the global financial crisis, which he said had not been an issue as many uranium companies had recently raised capital.

“The people of Queensland have to rethink why is the government against uranium mining?” he said.

“Is it a throw back to old 1970s rhetoric or is it something that is genuinely there.”

Western Australia is now full steam ahead with uranium activity after Premier Colin Barnett’s Liberal party lifted the ban on mining the yellowcake last year.

South Australia, with BHP's massive Olympic Dam mine and the Northern Territory, with ERA's Ranger mine, are both pro-uranium states. Victoria and NSW have blanket bans on both exploring and mining uranium.

Geological survey of Western Australia executive director Tim Griffin said the industry got excited when Barnett won government and lifted the uranium ban.

“There is a lot of new work going on in Western Australia on the exploration side, but more particularly, in trying to get a mine up and running in the next fours years and the industry is confident it can do that,” he said.

“The government is definitely supporting that target and focussed on trying to make the changes to allow that to happen.”

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Paladin Lowers Production Guidance
PALADIN ENERGY (PDN)

Paladin Energy has lowered its production guidance for 2009/10 as the ramp up of its two uranium mines in Namibia and Malawi was slower than anticipated.

In its production report released today, the miner said production reached 744,188 pounds of uranium in the September quarter for both the Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia and the Kayelekera operation in Malawi.

Despite the slight production increase on the previous quarter (727,716lbs), Paladin said both mines, separately, had not achieved production targets.

For Langer Heinrich, a number of interruptions from the Stage 2 expansion operation caused production to be lower than the previous quarter at 654,516lbs of uranium oxide.

Sales from Langer Heinrich reached $US38.8 million from the sale of 703,000lbs of uranium oxide at $US54.48 for each pound.

A slower than expected ramp-up in July and August hampered production at Kayelekera, which produced 89,672lbs for the quarter.

Paladin said the September month production results improved, and the upward trend should continue towards the anticipated nameplate production rates in the March 2010 quarter.

Paladin is aiming for a throughput rate of between 2.2mlbs and 2.6mlbs for Kayelekera.

"Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera continued ramp-up activities during the quarter and, although ramp up was slower than anticipated, results continue to trend positively," Paladin said.

"Overall, considerable progress has been made towards removing identified production bottlenecks and achieving nameplate production levels as evidenced by the recent Langer Heinrich production figures.

"Previous guidance forecasting annual production rates for Paladin had been based on a faster ramp up of production than has been realised to date.

"Significant progress has been made during the quarter and management is confident the main delays have been absorbed into this period."

Paladin added that as Kayelekera is a new mine, production is more difficult to forecast.

As a result of the slower than anticipated ramp-up, Paladin has forecast a production range of 5.6mlbs to 6.1mlbs, down from the previous guidance of 6.6mlbs.

TradeTech's Uranium Spot Hits US$50.00 P/Lb

TradeTech’s Uranium Spot Price Indicator rose $2.50 to $50.00 per pound U3O8. The spot uranium price jumped again this week on confirmation that BHP Billiton had notified some customers of force majeure on deliveries from its Olympic Dam mine. The force majeure was the result of a mechanical failure to the main haulage system that occurred on October 6.

The news prompted sellers to raise offer prices and three transactions were concluded at significantly higher prices than those concluded last week. Current buying interest is coming primarily from traders and financial entities. Most utility customers are under little pressure to purchase and are currently taking a “wait and see” approach.

Rossing South Uranium Deposit Heading For Over 500 Million Lbs

ELEVEN (11) DRILL RIGS NOW ON SITE

Australia's Extract Resources, in which Kalahari Minerals owns around 40%, has said that its exploration target for its massive Rossing South discovery is for an extra 185-285 million lbs U3O8 which would bring total resource to more than 500 million lbs.

Photo of Rio's Rossing Uranium Pit



Kalahari Minerals PLC (AIM: KAH) said Extract Resources Ltd (TSX, ASX: EXT), in which it holds 40.88 percent, has increased the exploration target for its Rossing South uranium deposit at the Husab project in Namibia to between 185 and 285 million additional pounds of U₃O₈.

Kalahari cited an Extract statement that gave the exploration target for areas of the Rossing South project not included in its current resource estimates. Earlier this month, Extract said it found a new high grade zone at Rossing South.

Extract said the Rossing South project at present has an indicated resource of 24 million pounds U₃O₈, an inferred resource of 243 million pounds U₃O₈ and the above mentioned 185-285 million pounds exploration target, all at a 100 parts per million U₃O₈ cut-off.

Exploration drilling to date at Rossing South has been completed over 8 kilometres of a 15 kilometre long target of covered (but potentially uranium bearing) stratigraphy between the licence boundary and the northern termination of the Ida Dome. Continued exploration and resource definition drilling between Salem and Zone 1 is a priority for Extract, it said.

Infill drilling at Rossing South is currently focused on Zone 1 and Zone 2 to upgrade the resource status with the aim of defining reserves for the ongoing feasibility study. Exploration drilling is also continuing south of Zone 2.

Extract has 11 drill rigs currently operating on site. Additional rigs will be sourced over the coming months to accelerate drilling progress. However, given the massive size of the mineralised system defined thus far, exploration efforts are expected to continue for some time, it said.

The estimate for the total resource stands in excess of 500 million pounds U₃O₈.