Uranium

Uranium puts Southside on endangered list

2012-01-28T01:59:00.000-08:00

Southside landed on the Southern Environmental Law Center’s fourth annual Top 10 Endangered Places in the Southeast list since of proposed uranium mining and pressure to lift Virginia’s uranium moratorium.

Many of the areas on SELC’s top 10 list are endangered by pressure to undercut environmental protections and to lower the hurdles for potentially critical projects, according to a news release.

Anti-environmental forces are working in Congress, state legislatures and government agencies under the guise of promoting financial growth, said Marie Hawthorne, SELC’s director of development, in a statement. “The truth is, environmental defense had nothing to do with the financial crisis or today’s weak economy,” Hawthorne added. “Doing away with efficient laws and enforcement will accomplish nothing except sacrifice the natural treasures like those on our Top 10 list and other possessions that make the South such a great place live, work, and raise our families. We owe it to ourselves — and to prospect generations — to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

First Uranium gold ounces sold down 5%

2012-01-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

The business sold 38,548 ounces of gold in Q3 2012 compared to 40,529 ounces of gold in Q2 2012. Uranium formed was 30,887 pounds in Q3 2012 compared to 36,006 pounds in Q2 2012.

Said CEO Deon van der Mescht: "The third quarter proved mainly challenging from a safety and production perspective, especially for Ezulwini Mine.The three fatal accidents in the latter half of the 2011 calendar year had a important negative impact on employee morale and productivity.

This is reflected in the lesser than anticipated production figures which in turn necessitated the reformation of the Ezulwini Mine in order to protected the future of this operation."

Forte Energy extends uranium mineralisation at A238 prospect in Mauritania

2012-01-23T03:44:00.000-08:00

Forte Energy (LON:FTE, ASX: FTE) said initial assays from an ongoing 10,000 metre reverse movement drilling program at the A238 prospect in Mauritania confirm mineralised extensions to the northwest of the prospect and at depth under the existing uranium resource.

Initial assays for 36 of the 55 holes drilled to date show prominent intersections of 25 metres at 357 parts per million (ppm) uranium, 10 metres at 510ppm uranium, 8 metres at 312ppm uranium and 22 metres at 320ppm uranium.Of the holes drilled at the A238 prospect, 90 per cent have encounter mineralisation.

Forte expects to announce a supply upgrade for the prospect in the first quarter. The JORC resource for A238 stands at 14.9 million pounds of U3O8. Assays for the exceptional 19 drill holes are due shortly. The program was aimed at drilling outside of the accessible inferred supply and testing the potential mineralised extensions both at depth and along strike.

Record uranium production at Langer Heinrich mine

2012-01-18T02:17:00.000-08:00

The mine produced nearly 1, 2 million pounds of uranium in the fourth quarter of 2011, an raise of 40, 5 per cent compare to the third quarter. Production was also 33 per cent top than that of the second quarter and nearly 50 per cent more than what was mined in the first quarter of 2011.

In total, Langer Heinrich delivered about 3, 7 million pounds of uranium last year, Paladin Energy’s fourth quarter report, on the loose yesterday, shows.Tonnage through the process plant increased by 26 per cent in the fourth quarter with a throughput of 630 397 tonnes of ore crushed.Paladin, owner of Langer Heinrich, said overall plant competence during the quarter improved from 80,2 per cent in the third quarter to 83,8 per cent.

Paladin said the construction phase of the mine’s Stage 3 development project has been completed.“Ramp-up of the plant is predictable to be completed in the March quarter of 2012 with the project at an overall 99 per cent state of completion,” Paladin said. The company said all technical aspects of the Stage 4 possibility study were finished at the end of 2011. The economic modelling and compassion analysis are currently underway.

North Korea says it could halt its uranium program

2012-01-12T01:48:00.000-08:00

North Korea said Wednesday that it was open to talks over a deal to halt its uranium enrichment program, an agreement that seem within arrive at before the death of Kim Jong Il last month.The day begin inauspiciously as North Korea accused the United States of "politicizing" food aid, saying U.S. negotiators had accessible to ship humanitarian aid and temporarily lift economic sanctions if the North halted its uranium-enrichment program.

But a spokesman of the North's Foreign Ministry struck a appeasing chord, saying, "We will wait and see if the United States has a enthusiasm to establish confidence," the Korean Central News Agency reported.Negotiators took that as a sign that the government may be enthusiastic to engage Washington under Kim's son and successor, Kim Jong Un, even as it has vow not to talk with South Korea.

Kim's death left the world wondering where nuclear-armed North Korea, amid a food disaster would be headed under Kim Jong Un, who was consolidate his power as supreme commander of the North Korean People's Army.

Uranium Ban at U.S. Grand Canyon Pits Tourism Against Mining

2012-01-11T01:48:00.000-08:00

An Obama administration ban on new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, the second most-visited U.S. national park, has touched off a argue over jobs from mining and tourism in a state that relies on both industries.The ban “comes at the cost of hundreds of high-paying jobs and approximately $10 billion worth of bustle for the Arizona economy,” Arizona Governor Janice K. Brewer, a Republican, said in a statement.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who sign the 20-year ban yesterday at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, said it was part of an effort to maintain the $3.5 billion spent by guests to the national park each year.

“Tourism, leisure are extremely much a part of job creation of the United States,” Salazar said. “The jobs associated to the Grand Canyon are not jobs that can be export anywhere, those are truly American jobs.”The ban will avoid new uranium and other hard-rock mining on about 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon National Park, which was visited by 4.5 million people in 2010, second to the Great Smoky Mountains. Previously accepted mining and new projects on claims and sites with accessible rights will be allowed, potentially leading to development of as many as 11 uranium mines, according to a declaration from the Interior Department.

Green light for tarps to hold uranium

2012-01-03T02:51:00.000-08:00

The 1200 tonnes of copper focus that spilled into the Edith River, 40km northwest of Katherine, contained 0.008 per cent uranium which can be up to 96kg of the hazardous material.NT Worksafe and Safework SA had allowed OZ Minerals a 12-month exemption from moving copper focus in sealed containers while they were being built. The exemptions expire on December 31.

Territory Government spokeswoman Lesley Major said in a written statement that present was no formal NT exemption for OZ Minerals to transport the loads without protected containers."NT Worksafe has allowed the sustained transport in the NT in accordance with the SA release as part of Oz Mineral's transition to the new carriages," she said.

"This decision was made following talk with SafeWork SA and (the Environment Department), and following discussion with Oz Minerals."Given the nature of this material, and the fact that there were until just no special requirements for the transport of it, the provision of an exemption for a fixed period of time to permit a transition to compliance is careful to be natural and reasonable."

Derailed freight carrying uranium traces exempted from safety laws

2011-12-31T02:28:00.000-08:00

The load of copper concentrate spilled in a train derailment at a swamped river in the Northern Territory after tropical storm Grant devastated the region earlier this week.The mining company concerned OZ Minerals, has been allowed by NT and SA governments to transport the copper focus without complying with Australian Dangerous Goods laws, the Northern Territory News reports.

The train was carrying 1500 tonnes of copper focus from OZ Minerals' Prominent Hill copper mine in South Australia when it derail in bad weather cause by ex-tropical cyclone Grant on December 27.Up to 1200 tonnes of the substance spill into the nearby Edith River, Oz Minerals said in a report to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on December 28.

The copper focus from Oz Minerals' mine contains less than 0.008 per cent of uranium, according to the company's documentation, the Adelaide Advertiser report on Saturday.That equates to 96 kilograms in 1200 tonnes of copper focus the newspaper said.OZ Minerals says radiation levels are under regulatory limits and are monitor to ensure no risk to the workers or public during production or transport.

Pittsylvania County farmer takes uranium mining debate to heart

2011-12-30T04:26:00.000-08:00

Uranium mining is likely to be the hot button concern when Virginia lawmakers begin work in a couple of weeks up in Richmond.A suggestion to lift a statewide ban on the mining of the radioactive mineral is polarizing and individually impactful.

Consider the case of a 200-year-old farm near a planned uranium mine site in Pittsylvania County.The 104 acre farm has be in farmer Byron Motley's family for seven generations."It was a tobacco farm for many years and then when they bought the tobacco allotment out I turned it into a hay farm and I'm just raising hay," Motley said.

But keeping his possessions up to par isn't what's waking him up in the middle of the night, it's worrying whether he'll get to keep it. Assorted and his family live about two miles from the proposed uranium mine site at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County.Part of his property falls under, what current studies have called, a contamination or condemned zone.

Port Hope Uranium Plant Contamination Circumstances Contain Similarities to Huntington's Buried Uranium Plant

2011-12-29T05:27:00.000-08:00

Port Hope has a water treatment plant supply its drinking water. Incredibly, adjacent to this water treatment plant, is a enormous factory which emit uranium gas and dust into the air and Lake Ontario. The Cameco plant manufactures uranium coal robs for export. Back in the 1950’s the Port Hope facility “used to purify uranium for fuel rods in nuclear reactors” and it supplied uranium for U.S. weapons until 1957.Dr. Dale Dewar, Executive Director (Canada), Physicians for Global Survival , has written regarding this Ontario town on the shores of Lake Ontario.

In the Common Dreams.org article she reported “hundreds of thousands of tons of waste containing several radioactive carcinogenic elements --- uranium, radium, radon and polonium --- accrued at the site and “were randomly dispense throughout the town in ravines and playing fields and used as landfill and building materials in basics for schools and public buildings.”Port Hope closed a “highly polluted” St. Mary’s School in 1975. It was impure with radon gas. After the closure , she reported that 200,000 tons of “severely impure soil” was “excavated” from 400 properties and “exported” into the Chalk River.

“Contrary to statements provide by federal government agencies, no level of radiation is safe and it is cumulative -- each dose adds to the danger of cancer. Children are 10 to 20 times more radiosensitive than adults, and fetuses are very sensitive,” the doctor wrote. “Uranium waste is radioactive for billions of years, decaying in sequence to radioactive elements ( "daughters"), all of which can induce cancer or genetic diseases when toward the inside the human body as hot spots or "internal emitters."

2011 Uranium Market Trends

2011-12-28T04:40:00.000-08:00

In 2011, the uranium mining industry experienced a number of important events which had an impact on uranium prices and equity market volatility.

Germany, Italy and Switzerland have made policy decisions concerning nuclear energy which are not positive for the industry; however, these three countries joint represent a relatively small proportion of global demand for uranium totaling just about 5.8 percent of annual requirements. Following up with key points on the stipulate and supply arguments Mr. Khaliqi underscored “Germany’s stance to decommission all nuclear plants has also prompted other European nations to evaluation their policies. On the supply side, the biggest news story or catalyst in my view which will have substance impact on medium to long term prices is BHP’s (NYSE:BHP) planned expansion of Olympic dam. The expansion at Olympic Dam will considerably lift the mine’s annual production of uranium from 4ktpa to 19ktpa, adding major amounts of uranium to global supply.

Another key increase this year was the feasibility study of the Husab uranium project, a $1.7 billion uranium undertaking on the western coast of Namibia. Earlier in this month, Extract Resources Limited (ASX:EXT) was offered $2.2 billion by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) designed for its Husab uranium project. This is of importance as the Husab project is the largest in-situ, and maximum grade, granite-hosted uranium deposit in Namibia. It is as well the fifth-largest uranium-only deposit in the world.

The Australian uranium exploration and mining companies may have seen enhanced regulatory conditions, as Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, appeared intent to vary the current policy which did not allow uranium sales to India. India’s new rules to provide liability limitations for uranium producers and equipment suppliers in the case of a grave accident at Indian nuclear power plants saw a positive ending for all uranium producers.Earlier this month, the Nunatsiavut Assembly in Eastern Canada, lifted a suspension on uranium mining on Inuit land in Labrador after three years.

Uranium: 2011 a review and 2012 a preview

2011-12-27T03:34:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of 2011, analysts all over the place championed a "renaissance" of nuclear power. The Japanese tsunami and subsequent Fukishima nuclear accident in March challenge market sentiment; spot prices and stocks alike suffer setbacks. The Energy Report has been there for the whole wild ride, interviewing industry experts, sharing sector news and scouting out the best companies for any market. Read on for a display of expert commentary on this still-promising sector.

After a sluggish 2009 and a slow 2010, uranium seemed to be coming into its own at the opening of 2011. The spot price went from $42/pound (lb) at the end of the decade to start 2011 higher than $60/lb. It quickly topped $70/lb in February and had $75/lb in its sights before the March 11 Fukushima nuclear accidents slammed it back down momentarily to $50/lb. With the exemption of a couple bounces, it stayed lower through the rest of the year, closing at $52/lb.

The Energy Report research shows that uranium company stock prices normally followed the spot price as deliberate in the UXA1 Commodity Futures Price (shown as the bright red line). The real low for approximately all the companies and the commodity itself was in August and September, with signs of life frequent in the fall.

Kudankulam: protestors want uranium from site gone by year end

2011-12-26T01:44:00.000-08:00

Anti-Kudankulam nuclear power plant protestors today criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's declaration that the project would be operationalised in a few weeks and set December 31 as the deadline for the Centre to eliminate the uranium kept in the plant or else face "intensified agitation".

At an emergency assembly convened in the light of Singh's announcement yesterday in Moscow that the first unit of the plant would be operationalised in weeks, a declaration was passed by the protestors who demand that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) remove the fuel kept in the KNPP campus by December 31.

"The Prime Minister's comments are extremely condemnable. We demand that the Centre take the uranium away from the site before December 31 or else we will deepen our protests further from January 1. We speculate whether the PM is working for us (Indians) or for foreign companies," M Pushparayan, a representative of the protestors in the state government-appointed board to hold talks with the Central panel over the issue, said.

Safety fears for new uranium customer

2011-12-23T01:45:00.000-08:00

India, Australia's newest uranium export destination, is to take to pieces its nuclear regulator, replacing the expert panel with a government-controlled body critics say will be a ''sham'' and ''no regulator at all''.Legislation before the Indian parliament would restore the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, which has monitor the use, transfer and disposal of nuclear material in India for 28 years, with the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority.

The NSRA will be answerable to a clutch of government ministers who can straight the regulator, even sack its members, generous rise to allegations that the new body will be captive to government.The controversial move comes as Australian officials arrange to begin negotiations with India about the sale of uranium to its inhabitant nuclear program.

This month the Labor Party overturned a long-standing ban on promotion uranium to India because it refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.India remains steadfastly outside the treaty but has sign other international agreements and is now subject to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group.But nuclear experts say safety will be compromise below the new domestic regulator.

Much-awaiting Va. uranium mining report released

2011-12-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

A highly anticipated National Academy of Sciences report on uranium mining finished Monday that Virginia must overcome "steep hurdles" before it can guarantee that a rich deposit of the radioactive ore can be safely extracted and processed.

The 290-page report is probable to guide the 2012 General Assembly if it considers ending a 30-year ban on uranium mining. The report does not recommend whether it must be lifted, but makes clear the state must address a number of environmental and open safety issues before mining can occur.

The report points to many of the concern raised by uranium mining opponents, who have argue the East Coast's wet, hurricane-prone climate is a perilous environment for mining and milling, and for separating the radioactive ore from rock. Full-scale uranium mining has never occur on the East Coast, apart from as a byproduct of other mining.

Uranium Mining Debate in Virginia Takes a Step

2011-12-19T20:25:00.000-08:00

The National Academy of Sciences deliver a long-awaited report on uranium mining to the Virginia legislature on Monday, warning that the state faced “steep hurdles” if it is to securely mine and process the nuclear reactor fuel.

The report’s release marks the start of what is certain to be emotional debate over whether to lift a nearly three-decade moratorium and permit landowners in southern Virginia to remove ore from a vast underground deposit, as they first sought to do in the 1980s.

The legislature commissioned the $1.4 million study to provide a thorough and impartial backdrop for debate over whether to lift the moratorium. The General Assembly asked the panel to study practice in the industry, health and security issues, and narrow considerations for the state.

Inuit open to uranium mining

2011-12-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

A self-governing Inuit territory in northern Canada has lifted a moratorium on uranium mining, opening the door to a likely mining boom, but analyst say low uranium prices could hamper mine development in the remote region.The Nunatsiavut government, a regional assembly in place of the Inuit people of Labrador on Canada's North Atlantic coast, voted to lift the three-year moratorium on uranium mining and milling on Inuit lands.

The region hopes to be a focus for investment and jobs to the small communities around the uranium-rich Central Mineral Belt in the territory of Newfoundland and Labrador.But analysts say the companies owning looking at projects in the region will face numerous challenges, including a lack of infrastructure and difficulty financing large and exclusive uranium projects.

Australian miner Paladin Energy, which owns the Michelin project in the district said Thursday it tactics to restart exploration in mid-2012, with drilling seen in the third quarter.The Michelin project has a deliberate and indicated resource of 83.8 million pounds and cover six part deposits.

Iran considers moving uranium enrichment facilities to safer locations

2011-12-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

Iran may move its uranium enrichment services to safer locations if this becomes essential a senior military commander said on Wednesday, dazzling Iran's worries about a possible military strike against the sites. Both the US and Israel have not ruled out a military option beside Iran's controversial nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making atomic weapons.

Iran denies the charge, saying the program is geared toward generate electricity and producing medical radioisotopes desirable to treat cancer patients. Gholam Reza Jalali, who commands an anti-sabotage unit in the powerful Revolutionary Guard, said the susceptibility of Iran's nuclear facilities from a probable strike is "already minimal" but that the move still may go through for their better protection.

"If conditions require, we will move (our) uranium enrichment services to safer locations," Jalali was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying. Iran's main uranium enrichment site in Natanz in central Iran is built partly subversive while the long-secret Fordo facility was built deep inside a mountain as a safety measure from aerial attacks. Jalili said the existing infrastructure has previously been "a kind of deterrent" against attacks.

Uranium miner faces Chinese power play

2011-12-12T04:22:00.000-08:00

THE corporate watchdog says a Chinese state-owned power business has to launch a $2.2 billion takeover for Australian uranium company Extract Resources if the Chinese group is winning in its bid for Extract's 43 per cent shareholder.

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Uranium Resources Company launched a gracious invasion bid overnight on the London Stock Exchange offering £632 million ($A979 million) for Extract's main shareholder, Kalahari Minerals, which owns 43 per cent.

Under Australia's stock exchange rules CGNPC would then have to pursue the Kalahari offer with a bid for Extract because it would own additional than 20 per cent of its shares.Perth-based Extract said yesterday that CGNPC would be necessary to offer shareholders $8.65 a share, as it had established a ruling from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that CGNPC had to make a bid under Australian regulations.

Chinese power group eyes uranium companies

2011-12-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

A Chinese state-owned power company has set its sights on two uranium companies, making a £632m offer for London-listed Kalahari Minerals that if completed would trigger an offer for Australia-listed Extract Resources.China Guangdong Nuclear Power has bid 243.55p for Kalahari, an investor in a Namibian uranium project, representing a 16 per cent premium to the Aim-quoted group’s share price over the past six months.

Kalahari’s board recommended the latest offer from the Chinese group, which is trying to secure supplies of nuclear fuel as the country embarks on the world’s biggest reactor-building programme.Earlier this year, CGNPC tried to buy Kalahari but its 290p offer was disrupted by falling uranium markets after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan as well as an adverse ruling from the UK’s takeover panel.

Kalahari is an investment company whose sole asset is a 43 per cent stake in Extract, which is developing the Husab uranium project in Namibia.Australian securities laws require bidders to extend their offer to all shareholders if they buy a stake of 20 per cent or more in an Australian company.

Global Scarcity of Uranium Looms

2011-12-08T02:12:00.000-08:00

Challenges in source funds for new mining projects, interruptions in together new and ongoing mine production, as well as the end of the Highly Enriched Uranium agreement are near-perfect ingredients for a lack of uranium in the very near future, a top producer warns.

Tim Gitzel, Chief Executive Officer of Cameco Corp., the world's largest uranium producer, said the problem lies additional on the way investors and producers make their calculations."They take every likely project, think it's going to operate to excellence and add it up and say 'there's lots of supply,'" Gitzel said. "It's easier said than complete.

Gitzel argued that investors, traders, analysts and critics focus too much on a "post-Fukushima attitude.""People don't focus so a large amount on the supply side," he said.Prices of uranium, a radioactive heavy metal used as an plentiful source of nuclear energy, have tumbled 24 per cent since the March 2011 magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan so as to caused a partial meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.The crisis at Fukushima led nations to pause and re-evaluate accessible as well as future nuclear programs. Germany, for one, announced it will finish its nuclear reactors by 2022.

India's uranium mines cast a health shadow

2011-12-06T04:48:00.000-08:00

Gudiya Das whines as flies settle on her face, waiting for her mother to swat them even as she lies on a cot in Ichra, one in a cluster of villages approximately India's only functioning uranium mines.The 12-year-old, whose skeletal frame makes her look regarding half her age, was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy when she was a year old.

"Back then there were 33 disabled kids here, now there are additional than a hundred," her father, Chhatua Das told AFP in his home in Jaduguda valley in the eastern state of Jharkhand.For Das and his wife Lakshmi, who have lost six children earlier than the age of one, there is only one possible culprit -- the nearby mines run by the state-owned Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL).

"I know there is some connection among the mining and what's happened to my daughter," Lakshmi told AFP. "It's because of the uranium in the water here."Environmental groups say the mining company is pollute the groundwater by dumping radioactive waste within three so-called tailings ponds that hold the sludge created by the mining process -- a charge vehemently denied by UCIL.

Rio Tinto needs to move fast on Husab uranium mine

2011-12-03T00:51:00.000-08:00

That is the final step in achieving all the essential permits, allowing Husab to move into the production phase. A clear path to developing a mine would also make Extract a additional inviting target. Indications are that China Guandong Nuclear Power Corp is set on a fresh bid for Kalahari Minerals, which would under Australian takeover rules trigger an present for its primary asset, 43 per cent-owned Extract.

Extract this week said it was conscious that CGNPC was talking to Namibia’s state-owned Epangelo Mining regarding buying a 10 per cent interest in Husab - something that CGNPC could only sign off on if it proscribed the mining project. Extract said plans for infrastructure such as power and water for Husab are well advanced.

"Discussions with potential debt financiers of the project are well under way, and the company continue to appraise offtake arrangements and opportunities for asset in the project by strategic partners," said Jonathan Leslie, chief executive and managing director of the Perth-based firm. Analysts have long optional Rio is a logical buyer of Extract, given its scale and the nearness of its operating mine to Husab..

Namibia clears Extract to build Husab uranium mine

2011-11-30T02:19:00.000-08:00

Extract Resources has won a licence to enlarge its Husab uranium mine in Namibia, which could help push up he price a Chinese suitor can offer for the $2 billion Australia-based company in a widely likely buyout bid.State-owned China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) is in talks to take over Extract's 43 percent shareholder, Kalahari Minerals, through Husab, the world's fourth-largest uranium deposit, seen as the key target.

Extract said on Wednesday it had established the terms that Namibia's Ministry of Mines and Energy had set for granting a licence for Husab, and the ministry would through the mining commissioner to issue a licence for the project."This marks the final step to achieve all of the permits that we need in order to initiate the development of the Husab Uranium Project," Extract Chief Executive Jonathan Leslie said in a statement.

Extract has been in talks with global miner Rio Tinto to link expansion of Husab with Rio's neighbouring Rossing uranium mine. Rio Tinto owns an 11 percent stake in Kalahari and a 14 percent stake in Extract.CGNPC, which first approach Kalahari in March just previous to
Japan's Fukushima disaster, has until Dec. 8 to decide whether to go ahead with a for Kalahari or be forced to wait a additional six months before it can come back with another.

Can using thorium instead of uranium make nuclear energy safer

2011-11-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

Thorium, a naturally occurring radioactive element establish in abundance in the Earth’s crust all around the world, might well be a better fuel basis than uranium for nuclear power generation for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, just one ton of the silvery metal can make as much energy as 200 tons of uranium or 3.5 millions tons of coal, according to Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia of the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Another advantage is that it come out of the ground as a 100 percent pure, functional isotope.

Unlike uranium, which contains only 0.7 percent fissionable material, thorium doesn’t need enrichment to be used in nuclear reactors. Also, the spent-fuel waste beginning thorium fission cannot be re-formulated for nuclear weapons like plutonium, the waste product of uranium-based fission.Also, proponents say that thorium doesn’t need the high temperatures and mitigation equipment of uranium-based reactors. “The plants would be a large amount smaller and less expensive,” Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA rocket engineer and now chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering, told the UK’s Telegraph last year.

“You wouldn’t need those huge containment domes since there’s no pressurized water in the reactor.” With no high temperatures, thorium reactors can’t “melt down” and liberate radiation.“Once you start looking additional closely, it blows your mind away,” adds Sorensen. “You can run civilization on thorium for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s basically free.” The advocacy-oriented Thorium Energy Alliance reports that there is “sufficient thorium in the U.S. alone to power the country at its current energy level for over 1,000 years.”

India exploring for uranium mining assets abroad

2011-11-25T02:53:00.000-08:00

India was exploring chance to own uranium mining assets overseas and also looking forward to have enduring contract for the supply of uranium to run its nuclear plants, a senior official said today.

"After the opening of the International Civil Nuclear Cooperation, chance to own assets as well as opportunity to enter long-term contract for supply of uranium mines has opened up.It is our policy to look for those chance and we are exploring such opportunities," Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Director R K Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of the 22nd National Annual Conference of Indian Nuclear Society (INS) here.

Reacting to a query, he said "We are operating in safe protected reactors. The nuclear plants in Rajasthan are operation on fuel material which has been imported. Previously we have the advantage of getting fuel supply including for Tarapur nuclear power plant."

Selling uranium to India, responsibly

2011-11-24T04:29:00.000-08:00

Prime Minister Gillard's announcement that she will seek a modify in Labor's platform to permit uranium exports to India is problematic for Australia's non-proliferation policy and reputation. I share the concern about the obvious failure to extract anything from India in return for a major policy shift, and the implication that uranium exports to India will soon develop into the law as soon as ALP policy has been changed, without the due process frequently reserved for changes of policy of this magnitude.

But let's not throw our hand up in the air just yet. A change in ALP policy is the backing a Gillard Government will need previous to any negotiations can commence with India, negotiations which might yield net reimbursement to Australia's non-proliferation agenda.First, the proposal to modify decades of Australian policy on which countries we sell uranium to is not entirely capricious. There are some sound policy reason for exporting uranium to India, mainly strategic and environmental: India is a rising power with which we should found a strategic relationship. As thoroughly irksome as this is, India has made it clear that the value of a closer relationship is right to use to Australian uranium.

India's energy needs are insatiable and Nuclear energy will help limit the damage to the global environment from its growing energy use. The world also needs India to be an lively participant in the fight against proliferation and in running emerging nuclear tensions in its region. As it is not and never will be a member of the NPT, other mechanisms for as well as India in these efforts are needed.

Hypocritical refusal to sell uranium to India does no good

2011-11-23T04:31:00.000-08:00

People such as my colleague Senator Gavin Marshall, who want to keep Labor's policy of refusing uranium sales to India, need a influential justification to persist with a policy that restricts trade and reduces our export income.

Just what is it? It can't be so as to India has nuclear weapons. We sell uranium to Russia and China, together of which have such weapons.That India is occupied in a regional arms race? China is occupied in one of the fastest military build-ups in recent history. That India allows nuclear proliferation? India tightly guards its nuclear technology and has never permissible it to proliferate. None of these objections hold water.

Not selling uranium to India made a few sense when it was part of an global strategy to bring India into the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But the US-India nuclear agreement of 2007 ended that plan and lifted the de facto international ban on nuclear co-operation with India. The current policy no longer serve any purpose.

India eyes Australia uranium assets: report

2011-11-22T02:06:00.000-08:00

Energy hungry India will consider acquire Australian uranium mining assets if a contentious ban on exports to the nuclear power is lifted, according to a report.Australia has the world's major reserves of uranium and senior New Delhi officials said the country could move to buy up assets if a ban on sales is detached as favoured by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

"Once Australia comes into the fold all property will be reviewed," said A.K. Sarangi, deputy general manager of tactical planning at the Uranium Corporation of India, the government agency dependable for mining and purchases."Australian deposits will be a aim along with assets in other countries," he added to The Australian newspaper.

"If we decide we need to reach properties abroad and the Australian government agrees then Australian assets are also considerations."Federation of Indian Mineral Industries chief R.K. Sharma agreed.“I think it would be extremely desirable to invest in Australian uranium assets since Australia is a very investor-friendly country," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Iran Pressed to Resolve Discrepancy on Uranium

2011-11-19T02:01:00.000-08:00

The Obama administration pressed Iran to account for a inconsistency of nearly 20 kilograms in its reporting to the United Nations' nuclear agency on how much natural uranium metal it has in its stockpile. U.S. diplomats told a quarterly gathering Friday of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board so as to Washington fears this nuclear material can be diverted for use in Tehran's weapons programs.

Natural uranium metal can specifically be utilized as a surrogate material to conduct replicated tests of nuclear detonations, according to U.S. officials. It can also be used to manufacture high-explosive weapons, such as armor-piercing rockets.The IAEA calculated 20 kilos added than Iran had reported.

"It remains to be seen whether this discrepancy could eventually represent another piece in the puzzle the IAEA is assemble to show Iran's nuclear weapons-related activities," said Glyn Davies, U.S. ambassador to the IAEA. "The secretariat and the board must accept no delay in Iran's response."The agency's board voted by consensus Friday to officially censure Tehran for its nuclear activities, but didn't take steps to begin new economic sanctions on Iran. The resolution followed the release last week of an IAEA report that detailed Tehran's alleged efforts to develop the technologies used to create nuclear weapons.

Australia's uranium industry poised for growth

2011-11-16T01:46:00.000-08:00

Global demand and prices contain fallen in the aftermath of the radioactive leaks at the power plant in Fukushima in March.However, a push by the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to sell radioactive fuel to India has boosted hopefulness in the industry. Australia supplies about 13% of the world's uranium, behind Canada and Kazakhstan, but covered in the red dust of the vast outback lies an estimated 40% of the world's known coffers of this valuable yet controversial commodity.

Simon Clarke, from the Australian Uranium Association, told the BBC that the sector had taken stock of the awful events in eastern Japan and was ready to move on. "Fukushima caused the global nuclear industry to pause and to be trained the lessons from that accident," he said.

"I think it is robust sufficient to bounce back. The fundamental reasons why countries opt for nuclear energy as parts of their electricity generate portfolios haven’t changed. Many countries still see nuclear energy as a safe and reliable source of electricity."Prof Tony Owen from the School of Energy and Resources in Adelaide believes that while the global industry still faces uncertainty, the extend of nuclear power is likely to increase.

Rio Tinto seen stoking bid war for Hathor

2011-11-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

Cameco, Canada's largest uranium miner, raised its offer for Hathor by 20 percent to C$4.50 a share, top a friendly bid from Rio Tinto at C$4.15 given that Rio Tinto had been in talks with Hathor since early 2010, investors expect Rio Tinto is excited to take over the company and would have a bit more up its sleeve to top Cameco, especially because the target is not large.

"It wouldn't be out of character for them to come up with a high bid. In the scheme of Rio, we're not talking about a lot of money," said Peter Chilton, an market analyst at Constellation Capital Management, which owns Rio Tinto shares, Rio Tinto decline to comment on the latest bid by Cameco.

Rio Tinto mines uranium in Australia, during its ERA unit, and owns the Rossing uranium mine in Namibia, but its Australian assets face environmental obstacles and the Namibia mine is considered fairly low grade the main attraction in Hathor is its great exploration-stage Roughrider project in the uranium-rich Athabasca region of Saskatchewan in Western Canada, which has the potential to make at least 5 million pounds of uranium a year.

Paladin's Kayelekera mine costs offset uranium profits

2011-11-14T03:25:00.000-08:00

NET losses by uranium miner Paladin Energy sank to $US123.4 million ($120m) in the quarter ended September 30, as a $US178.9m harm on its Kayelekera mine wiped out modest profits from its uranium sales in a quarterly activities report, Paladin said that revenues in the quarter additional than doubled to $US103m from $US49 1m in the same quarter the year before.

But rising production costs still left the company in the red after amortisation and depreciation, and weakness in the uranium price forced Paladin to write down the haulage value of Kayelekera, a mine in northern Malawi with a resource of 19.1m tonnes.

Paladin said its selling price in the September quarter was an average $US51 per pound, against $US55 over the year to the end of June the regular production cost from Kayelekera and the bigger Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia during both periods was $US35.

Veterans skeptical of pledge to examine uranium exposure

2011-11-11T03:02:00.000-08:00

Veterans advocates are skeptical of a federal government undertake to study the effects of exposure to depleted uranium after years of ignore their pleas to recognize the issue louise Richard, a long-time detractor who says she suffers from Gulf War illness, says Veterans Affairs has persistently refused to acknowledge the health hazards and doesn't even track supposed exposures.

An ex-soldier, Pascal Lacoste, defunct a desire strike Tuesday in Levis, Que, after the veterans minister and local MP, Steven Blaney, pledge to launch a analysis in the next 30 days the minister said academic medical researchers and soldiers will make up the panel.

Richard, who has researched uranium exposure, needs to be on the group and says she finds it criminal that a veteran had to resort to a hunger strike to get attention lacoste and other veterans fault complaint like chronic pain and neurological disorders on depleted-uranium poisoning they say they contracted for the duration of the 1990-91 Gulf War and on missions in Bosnia.

Uranium Price Could Reach $100 per pound by 2013

2011-11-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

Uranium investing interest could enlarge extensively according to the bullish outlook of Mark Lackey, Investment Strategist with Pope &amp Company with his forecasts for enlargement in the uranium mining industry,“If you look at the accord right now a lot of people are saying $60 to $65 [per pound of uranium] for the next number of years spot and maybe $70 long term.

Long term is [currently] trading at $64 [per pound of uranium] that is not mostly bullish the reason that we have a different view is twofold number one we don’t think a few of the supply will come on when people say it will, because if you look at mining in general there are usually delays and we are seeing a lot of water issues in countries these days and economic nationalism and the second thing is that the Russians will stop export particularly enriched uranium in 2013 and where is that shortfall going to be made up?

Some people are saying Kazakhstan and Namibia, I don’t think we’ll get the development in those countries that a lot of people recommend they will we think the prices will head up closer to $70 [per pound of uranium] next year and then in 2013 we can get back closer to $100.”

Thorium pushed as uranium alternative

2011-11-08T03:26:00.000-08:00

A SCIENTIFIC movement to promote thorium as a nuclear fuel, due to its plenty and improved safety, is developing around the world and Australia could lead the way the Sydney scientist Reza Hashemi-Nezhad has argue for additional than a decade for the benefits of thorium when used in an accelerator-driven nuclear reactor that operate at subcritical conditions.'

'You cannot have an accident like to Chernobyl,'' Dr Hashemi-Nezhad, the director of the Institute of Nuclear Science at the University of Sydney, said, ''It does not make weapon-grade materials and the nuclear waste is much less toxic than beginning a standard reactor.''

With the world's major reserves of the radioactive mineral, Australia could be a leader in increasing and adopting the technology,''It is completely proven and feasible,'' Dr Hashemi-Nezhad said, ''the only thing necessary here is government acceptance.''

A low-carbon, safer and more abundant energy source than uranium

2011-11-07T02:11:00.000-08:00

THORIUM is a radioactive chemical element that could, in theory, be used to produce large quantities of low-carbon electricity in future decades compare with the uranium that powers nuclear plants, thorium is additional abundant and broadly distributed in the Earth's crust.

It also offers various safety reimbursement over uranium: it is not prone to runaway chain reactions that can lead to nuclear disasters; its waste goods remain dangerous for a much shorter period; and its by-products aren't useful for creation nuclear weapons in addition, thorium reactors could theoretically be used to burn up the hazardous plutonium store in existing nuclear waste stockpiles.

There are various different ways that thorium can be used to make energy the plant being developed in India uses solid thorium fuel in water-cooled reactors like to those found in today's uranium-based power plants a completely different approach being explore in China and the US is the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR or ''lifter'') this expertise was developed to prototype stage by the American government in the 1960s but was then shelve in favour of uranium, possibly since it didn't go hand-in-hand with weapons production.

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Senator says uranium mine plans flawed

2011-11-01T04:50:00.000-07:00

In his public submission, as part of the EPA approval progression Senator Ludlam says there are a series of unanswered questions regarding the company's planned mine in WA's northern Goldfields.

Toro Energy is seeking environmental support for what could become WA's first uranium mine Senator Ludlam says there are serious flaws in the company's plans,"The company is proposing to leave at the rear in the landscape tens of million of tonnes of very thinly powered carcinogenic radioactive waste and they are asking the taxpayer to take on that charge 10 years after the mine closes," he said.

"For them to do that, they then need to put up a credible proposal for how that substance is going to be isolated from people and the surroundings for tens of thousands of years and they haven't even made an attempt to do that."

Ohio uranium plant project in jeopardy

2011-10-31T04:32:00.000-07:00

A week after the Department of Energy announced it would invest millions of dollars in support for a proposed uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, supporters of the plant be unsure if the move is too little, too late.

It’s the newest chapter in a three-year quest by Maryland-based USEC to secure a $2 billion federal loan guarantee to build its American Centrifuge Project in southern Ohio.

Last week, the DOE announce that while they had not yet approved the loan guarantee, they had decided to foot the bill for up to $300 million in investigate and development funding DOE official said at the time that they hoped that the funding would help satisfy the scientific and financial concerns that have stalled the project’s loan guarantee application, and emphasized that they carry the technology.

NRC fines GE-Hitatchi $45K over NC nuke test site

2011-10-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has fined GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy $45,000 for multiple security violation at a North Carolina facility using confidential technology to test whether lasers can be used to enrich uranium.

A redacted copy of an NRC violation letter provide to The Associated Press on Thursday following a Freedom of Information Act request said investigators recognized five violations including "a significant lack of management concentration Details of the violations described by the letter were blacked out by nuclear regulator before it was released to The AP, While some violations were "willful," "no actual consequences resulted," the NRC said.

The violations occupied a contractor's employee working at the GE-Hitachi's Global Nuclear Fuels facility near Wilmington, where the company is by means of top-secret technology to find out whether lasers can effectively enrich uranium as an alternative of costlier centrifuges, company spokesman Christopher White said.

More uranium mining near Canyon a bad idea

2011-10-18T00:57:00.000-07:00

A temporary moratorium has halted new uranium mining claims near the Grand Canyon at the moment Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is on the verge of extend the ban, which covers 1 million acres of federal land, for 20 years but leading member of our congressional delegation are trying to stop him.

The stakes are sky-high: our No 1 tourist magnetism the health of wildlife and the drinking water for more than 26 million people yet Sens Jon Kyl and John McCain and Reps Jeff Flake and Trent Franks have introduced legislation to take the brakes off mining claim it would particularly forbid any moratorium.

What are the benefits that outweigh the risks? They call the moratorium a "job killer" But lifting it would create relatively few jobs, several of them in Utah at peak production, total employment in the five-county region, as well as Coconino and Mohave, would increase by less than 1 percent.

Groundwater uranium level 20 times higher than normal in Bathinda village

2011-10-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

In a startling revelation, a study has found the absorption of uranium in groundwater at a Bathinda village 20 times more than the permissible limit also, the research work has accredited the high absorption of dissolved uranium in groundwater to high salinity, alkaline and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the upper layer of the groundwater in the Malwa belt.

Conducted jointly by eight scientists from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai, and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, the research says the absorption of uranium at Karamgarh Satran village (Bathinda) had been measured at 644 µg/L (parts per billion), the allowed limit, as per the Environment Protection Agency of USA’s guidelines, is 30 µg/L, meaning the absorption at the village is 20 times higher.

Besides, the average absorption was found to be 99.96 µg/L, about three times higher than the normal.Karamgarh Satran is followed by Dhillawan (463.6 µg/L), Giana (292.65 µg/L) and Gudda (165.85 µg/L) villages of Bathinda the research paper, “Geochemical modelling of uranium speciation in the subsurface aquatic environment of Punjab”, observed that mainly of the groundwater in southern-west Malwa region was strongly alkaline, highly saline and had high TDS and ionic strength, thereby rising the solubility of uranium in water.

Lawmakers push to lift northern Arizona uranium-mining ban

2011-10-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

Arizona and Utah lawmakers touted a Senate bill Wednesday that would open additional than 1 million acres in the northern part of Arizona to new uranium mining the Northern Arizona Mining Continuity Act would avoid the Department of the Interior from banning new uranium mines on the land, saying mining can bring hundreds of millions of dollars per year into local economies with minimal environmental risk.

The bill is a response to a provisional ban on new mines in the so-called Arizona Strip federal lands next to Grand Canyon National Park a ban that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he would like to extend for 20 years the department is at present studying the possibility John McCain, R-Ariz., said the ban sets a precedent that the Interior Department can modify land-use agreements without congressional consent he said the Interior Department breached an agreement it complete with Congress through the Arizona Wilderness Act of 1984, which specifies uses of the Arizona Strip.

“I don’t know if any of my colleagues were consult before this decision was made, but I sure as hell wasn’t,” said McCain, the major sponsor of the bill he was joined Wednesday by Republican lawmakers from the two states the Republicans’ measure is the conflicting of a House bill introduced this spring by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson his bill, the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act, would block additional uranium mining operations in the Arizona Strip.

BHP Billiton approves $1.2 bn to start work on giant copper and uranium mine

2011-10-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

BHP Billiton on Wednesday approved $1.2 billion in pre-commitment capital to start development work on its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine, which analysts estimate could almost cost 30 times that much to develop fully.

The funds will be used to buy trucks, build worker housing and for additional items requiring lengthy lead times, it said BHP said it will not make a final decision to go ahead until mid-2012, after it weighs up the 150 environmental conditions compulsory on the project by the national and South Australia state governments this week.

Once fully developed, Olympic Dam would approximately be on par with the massive copper mines of South America, although it would take years before the mine came close to identical the output of BHP's giant Escondida lode in Chile.

Chinese bet on Extract's uranium

2011-10-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

An expected $2.2 billion bid for uranium explorer take out Resources by a Chinese state owned nuclear power company is being labelled as the boldest show of hold for the sector since the Japanese nuclear disaster in March.

The takeover speculation was spark after Guangdong Nuclear Power reopened talks with Extract's biggest shareholder, which hold nearly 43 per cent of the share register, according to a media statement in the UK over the weekend.

Australian-listed Extract's intended Husab uranium project in Namibia is the focus of Guandong's intentions it is a 15 million pound a year mine that take out says will be one of the world's three largest uranium mines take out placed its shares in a trade halt after it had climbed 82 cents, or 10.2 per cent, to $8.86 following an hour of trade

Obama should test Iran’s nuclear offer

2011-10-07T03:06:00.000-07:00

President Obama should take a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook in attractive the final inning of the Cold War Obama can brave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to put his enriched uranium where his mouth is by stop all Iranian enrichment of uranium beyond the 5 percent level.

A quarter-century ago, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was tout a new “glasnost” openness President Reagan went to Berlin and called on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” Two years later, the Berlin Wall came plummeting down and, shortly thereafter, the Soviet “evil empire” fell as well.

While in New York for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in September, Ahmadinejad on three occasion made an explicit offer He said Iran would stop all enrichment of uranium beyond the levels used in civilian power plants if his country is able to buy particular fuel enriched at 20 percent, for use in its research reactor that produce medical isotopes to treat cancer patients.

Iran threatens to expand uranium enrichment if nuclear swap deal falls through

2011-10-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

Iran threatened Tuesday that if additional countries do not agree on a swap deal work out with France and Brazil last year, it would enlarge its own production of nuclear fuel the swap would see Iran's supply of 20 percent, or low-enriched, uranium exchange for nuclear fuel rods from France the medium enriched rods are to be used to fuel a Tehran medical reactor.

"We will not only continue to do the enrichment by ourselves but also build a factory for developed even the fuel rods by ourselves," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Mehmanparast additional that Iran could halt its 20 percent enrichment if the swap was approved.

"As the 20 percent enrichment process is not even economical for us, we would be willing to halt this process and get the essential fuel for the Tehran reactor from abroad," the spokesman said however, if a swap is not made, Iran would have no choice but to carry on producing fuel for the Tehran reactor, which Iran has said is used solely for medical purposes, such as treat cancer patients.

Largest abandoned uranium mine cleanup on Navajo Nation announced

2011-10-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

Under EPA oversight and in combination with the Navajo Nation EPS, General Electric conducted two prior cleanups at the site to deal with remaining contamination, including the remove and reconstruction of one building in 2007 and removal of 40,000 tons of impure soil in 2010.

The new accepted plan is based on six years of work and more than 10 public meetings with the local community, the Navajo Nation and others during the public meetings, residents uttered concern that the removal of mine waste with nearby United Nuclear Corporation Mill site tailings could cause groundwater contagion uneven settling of the tailings, or other problems with the current impoundment.

The multiyear cleanup will be conducted in several phases design of the removal facility will take place over a three-year period construction of final mine sign cleanup will be finished by 2018 the cleanup will place the impure soil in a lined, capped facility.

Uranium miner seeks $70m in fresh funds

2011-09-30T03:34:00.000-07:00

IT IS not the best of times for a uranium producer to be patter the market for fresh funding but that is what ASX-listed African uranium producer Paladin Energy is doing, in search of up to $70 million from an institutional placement of shares.

The funds are needed to strengthen the group's balance sheet to "ensure the company is well placed to meet all future commitment and pursue recognized growth options"" it was not inspiring stuff from a company whose share price has been trashed because investor confidence in uranium stocks was undermined by the incomplete meltdown at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in March.

Expansion at the group's Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia and the improvement of the Kayelekera mine in Malawi have also cause some headaches, fundamental to the group's 74 per cent share price fall.

Iran nuclear drive heightens risk of strike: France

2011-09-28T02:51:00.000-07:00

France's UN envoy warned that Iran faces the risk of a military strike if it pursue its nuclear drive because certain countries would not accept it having an atomic weapon in amazingly frank comments at a New York panel discussion, Ambassador Gerard Araud on Tuesday follow up on President Nicolas Sarkozy's statement to there could be a "preventive strike" against the Islamic republic.

Asked what would happen if Iran reach the threshold of a nuclear weapon, Araud said: "Personally I am convinced that a few countries won't accept this prospect" The envoy said the danger of disagreement was why France, Britain, Germany, the United States, Russia and China were trying to negotiate with Tehran.

"If we don't succeed today to arrive at a negotiation with the Iranians, there is a strong risk of military action," according to Araud, who did not say who would be possible to carry out such action "It would be a very complicated operation it would have disastrous cost in the region," said the ambassador, who has negotiate with Iran in the past.

US and Ukraine sign deal to remove uranium

2011-09-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

The United States and Ukraine signed a deal Monday to take away the former Soviet country's stockpile of weapons-grade uranium by early next year.Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko represent their nations in signing the agreement to remove the stockpile, which could offer enough material to build several nuclear weapons.

The deal was announce last year at an international nuclear security conference hosted by President Barack Obama but was not dignified until Monday Clinton and Gryshchenko had hoped to sign the deal in July, but it was belated amid Ukrainian reservations, according to U.S. officials among other reasons, Ukraine wanted assurance that the United States would complete a $25 million nuclear research ability called for under the deal.

The research facility will be able to produce 50 different types of medical isotopes, using only low-enriched uranium and Clinton said the U.S. was fully dedicated to meeting the timelines for construct the facility so it would be up and running by 2014.

Uranium Equities drilling extends uranium mineralisation at Nabarlek

2011-09-26T03:08:00.000-07:00

Uranium Equities (ASX: UEQ) has return an intercept of 1.3 metres at 0.88% uranium from continuing diamond drilling at the U40 view within its Nabarlek project in the Northern Territory.

These preliminary results designate extensions to the mineralisation discovered in 2010 Phase 2 of the diamond drilling program at the U40 Prospect, include a further 600 metres of drilling in four to six holes, is at present underway.

Reverse circulation drilling on the Nabarlek Mineral Lease has also widespread the known mineralisation at the Boomerang Prospect as well as 5 metres at 1,610 parts per million (ppm) uranium (U3O8) from 121 metres.

Toro Energy's three new uranium tenements could add 4m pounds to resource base

2011-09-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) has finalize legal documentation with MPI Nickel Pty Ltd that formalises conditions for the purchase of three key mining tenements contiguous to the Centipede deposit at Toro’s advanced Wiluna Uranium Project in Western Australia the "Millipede" uranium tenements could add 4 million pounds uranium to the company's reserve base.

Toro is currently working on a JORC Resource update for the Wiluna Project and the company expects the three new tenements will comprise a portion of the revised consolidated resource when it is on the rampage at the end of this month.

On 17 February 2011 Toro announced it was acquire a project called Millipede from MPI. deliberation for the tenements includes a A$4.5 million cash payment to MPI and 2% Net Smelter Return (NSR) style royalty in favour of MPI on construction in excess of 4.5 million pounds (Mlb) uranium (U3O8) from the tenements.

Uranium up on strong nuclear case

2011-09-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Uranium spot prices rose 2.4 percent last week as buyers look beyond the impact of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Ux Consulting Co said Uranium-oxide focus for immediate delivery sold for $54 a pound (0.45 kg) in the seven days ended Monday, compare with $52.75 the previous week, Ux said in an emailed report Tuesday that is based on the mainly competitive offer tracked by the U.S. company.

"The industry believes that the holder for nuclear energy is still strong, given that lots of countries are still moving forward with their nuclear energy plans," Ux said.

The spot price for the nuclear fuel has dropped 19 percent since the week previous to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami injured Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima No 1 power station, triggering the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986 and prompting a few nations to put their nuclear power plans on hold.

West fears possible Iran-North Korea nuclear links

2011-09-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Such a relationship would be logical and useful to both North Korea and Iran," said Mark Hibbs, an authority of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last year, a U.N. report suggested that impoverished, reclusive North Korea might include supplied Iran as well as Syria and Myanmar with banned atomic technology.

In what could be a sign of this, a German newspaper last month report that North Korea had provided Iran with a computer programme as part of intensified cooperation that might help the Islamic state build nuclear weapons.

There are reports and rumours, which governments and the IAEA (the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency) have not denied, indicating so as to there may be a track record of bilateral nuclear cooperation between North Korea and Iran, Hibbs said but while this can make sense for two states facing tightening sanctions and potentially earn Pyongyang a few badly needed funds the extent and nature of any such dealings, if they get place at all, remain shrouded in mystery.

Areva to temporarily shut down 2 French uranium plants

2011-09-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

French nuclear group Areva on Thursday said it would for the moment shut down two uranium exchange plants in France during November and December the temporary shutdown of the two plants, which employ approximately 570 staff, comes after a sharp fall in orders from Japanese nuclear power producers in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, said a spokeswoman at Areva.

"This decision is justified by events that occur in Japan and that are reducing Japanese power groups' delivery needs against this background we deem it unreasonable to create large amounts of converted uranium," the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said the temporary shutdown would decrease estimated production to 10,880 tonnes in 2011, down from an early goal of 13,400 tonnes for the full year the plants, which are owned by Areva's subsidiary Comurhex and are situated in the southern French cities of Tricastin and Narbonne, chemically arrange uranium before its is enriched to become fuel for nuclear power plants.

Hathor urges shareholders to reject Cameco bid

2011-09-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

Hathor Exploration (HAT.TO) urged shareholders on Wednesday to reject a conquest offer from Cameco Corp (CCO.TO), saying the C$520 million ($526 million) bid undervalues the excellence of its Roughrider uranium deposit.

Cameco launched its aggressive bid for the uranium exploration company in late August, after talks meant at a friendly deal failed [ID:nNL4E7JQ27] at stake is Hathor's Roughrider deposit, a uranium project situated near Cameco's Rabbit Lake mill in the Athabasca Basin of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

Hathor said Cameco's C$3.75 a share offer was financially insufficient and failed to ascribe value to Roughrider and to its other assets, as well as its Russell Lake property in the southeastern Athabasca Basin, Cameco, which is Canada's top uranium producer, argue that Hathor is underestimating the costs, timeline and risks related with building a uranium mine and mill, and as such, has overstated the worth of its projects.

Energy Ventures kicks off metallurgical testing at Aurora uranium project in Oregon

2011-09-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Energy Ventures (ASX: EVE) has commence a program of metallurgical testing on mineralisation beginning its Aurora uranium project in southeast Oregon, USA, as part of the company’s continuing feasibility assessment of the deposit.

The testing represents the first stage in developing a full process flowsheet for the uranium mineralisation at Aurora, which is the company’s mainly advanced development opportunity, and is designed to purify the understanding of material handling, comminution processes and liberation of uranium.

The company is also look at potential opportunities for beneficiation of the mineralisation at Aurora which has possible for shallow open pit mining, and expect results of the first stage of testwork in October 2011.

Uranium mining on Arizona Strip threatened by Federal Government

2011-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Headed by the Arizona-Utah Local Economic Coalition, the thought was held at the Washington County Administration Building on Sept. 7. Co-chaired by Washington County Commissioner Alan Gardner and Mohave County Commissioner Buster Johnson of Arizona, the Coalition heard testimony for and alongside a proposal of Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, Salazar plans to close one million acres of the Arizona Strip to numerous uses for the next 20 years.

Uranium mining is seen as the major target of Salazar’s proposal, as the bulk of current mining movement takes place in the one million acre zone if passed, future mining claims will be out of the question, while present ones will develop into subject to review.

The problems lies in concerns over potential infectivity cause to water by uranium mining it is also supposed that the mining will guide to the contamination of the Colorado River and adversely authority the scenery of the Grand Canyon in 2009; the Department of the Interior organized an Environmental Impact.

Cameco stirs up interest in bombed out uranium sector

2011-09-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

The faint stirrings of interest in the uranium sector are preliminary to be detected in the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, which set the scene for the most horrible atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

The tragic event prompted a rethink of nuclear policy worldwide, by means of Germany at the vanguard and sent the price of the fuel plummeting, bring the valuations of the companies mining uranium down with it.

Against this backdrop the world’s largest producer, Cameco Corp (TSE:CCO, NYSE:CCJ), is looking to close what seems to be a smart piece of business it have gone hostile with its US$530 million bid for Hathor Exploration (CVE:HAT), which own the Roughrider deposit in Canada’s Athabasca Basin.

More pain for uranium sector as price dips

2011-09-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

Already battered by headwinds, as well as strong opposition from environmentalists, WA's fledgling uranium sector is set for additional grief amid expectation the nuclear fuel's low price will fall another 6 per cent inside the next few months analysts at consultancy Resource Capital Research say the forecast crash in uranium oxide spot price over the coming three to six months is despite what show to be sound long-term fundamentals for the industry.

However, the continued fallout beginning Japan's nuclear crisis and Germany's subsequent decision to close its 17 reactors by 2022 is probable to add downward pressure on the U{-3}O{-8} spot price, which, at $US48.85 ($46.16) per pound, is rear at levels seen immediately after the March tsunami trigger the Fukushima plant explosion the spot price was $US67.75/lb before the Fukushima crisis.

"The fund-implied price, an indicator of market value expectations looking out three to six months, points to a spot price of $US45.95/lb, reflecting expectations of possible new supply to enter the market and uncertainty over the point of potential Japanese and German utility surplus dispositions," RCR said in its uranium sector review the uranium sector have also been weighed down by broader macro-economic factors, such as concern concerning the state of the US and European economies.

The undimmed danger of Iran’s nuclear program

2011-09-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

IRAN HAS TAKEN two new steps toward produce a nuclear weapon according to a report released Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has begin to use a new, more higher centrifuge to enrich uranium, which could allow it to make bomb grade material in a much shorter time period, be supposed to it choose to do so.

It also has begun installing centrifuges in a ability dug into a mountain near the city of Qom, which could be nearly invincible to a U.S. or Israeli air attack iranian officials say those centrifuges will be used to triple the making of uranium enriched to 20 percent, creating a stockpile for which Tehran has no reasonable legitimate use.

The report underlines the fact that, contrary to the impression often promote by the Obama administration, the danger that Iran will develop into a nuclear power is growing, not diminishing administration spokesmen often speak of what they say have been the crippling effect on the Iranian economy of sanctions to have been stepped up during the past two years extensive media reports contain told the sensational stories of computer viruses that may have disabled 1,000 or more Iranian centrifuges and assassinations to have eliminated several Iranian scientists.

Electrified Bacterial Filaments Remove Uranium from Groundwater

2011-09-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, Lovley published a paper in Nature Nanotechnology performance that the pili on G. sulfurreducens are a type of 'nanowire', since they conduct electricity the pili help to power the bacterium by transferring electrons shaped during the cell's metabolism to external acceptors such as iron the fact that pili can as well reduce a metal such as uranium "provides further evidence for long-range electron transfer along the pili", he says.

The research should help to improve bioremediation the use of biological organisms to eliminate pollutants from soil and water such as clean-up of the a lot of sites contaminated by uranium processing during the cold war, "Current methods to arouse the growth of these bacteria in the environment are pretty crude and empirical," says Lovley, "This new mechanism resolve allow us to better predict how uranium can be depleted."

Reguera is most excited about the possibility of "getting away beginning the bugs" and making non-living devices based on nanowires, "This would let to work in sites where bacteria cannot live," she says, such as the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, which be devastated by a tsunami earlier this year.

Iran connects Bushehr nuclear power plant to national grid

2011-09-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

Iran has connected its first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, to the national grid through a supply of 60 megawatts, the state IRIB TV reported Sunday,"The Bushehr nuclear power plant with the power of 60 megawatts be connected to the national grid at 23:29 local time (19:59 GMT) Saturday," the TV said.

According to the report, the move was taken to arrange the necessary conditions for initial utilization of the power plant with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts essential tests will be carried out in the following days to create sure of the compatibility of the connection, said the report.

Iran will hold a ceremony on Sept. 12 in the Bushehr nuclear power plant to properly launch the preliminary utilization of the plant, whose creation was initially, began in 1975 by several German companies the construction was halt when the United States imposed an embargo of hi-tech supplies on Iran after the 1979 revolution.

Iran's Nuclear Experiments Raise Alarm at U.N. Agency

2011-09-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

The United Nations' nuclear agency says it is "increasingly concerned" so as to Iran has conducted experimental work to enlarge nuclear weapons, in particular on warheads to deliver nuclear payloads in a statement issued Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Iran has begun deploy so-called second-generation centrifuges at its largest uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz, which could allow to the country to produce nuclear fuel at three times its current rate.

Tehran has concurrently begun installing centrifuge machines at an underground site close to the holy city of Qom, according to the U.N. agency, potentially minimizing the ability of the U.S. or Israel to launch military strikes beside Iran's nuclear facilities.

U.S. officials said the report reflects heightened international anxiety that Iran is developing the technologies to build nuclear weapons; a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied, Washington also said Iran's actions point to a require for additional international financial pressure on Tehran's government to power it to comply with U.N. resolutions requiring it to suspend all uranium-enrichment activities.

Uranium projects celebrate progress

2011-09-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

Full financial support has been finalised for an addition at a Namibian uranium mine, while Australian and US projects have reached more regulatory milestones, and a production raise is planned in Kazakhstan.

Paladin Energy has finalised the financing for the phase 3 expansion of its Langer Heinrich uranium mine in Namibia, A $141 million project financing ability is being provided by a syndicate of banks inside which Société Générale, Nedbank Capital and Standard Bank which provided the project finance for the primary Langer Heinrich construction project are joined by Barclays Capital and Rand Merchant Bank.

Paladin's own cash reserves have been used to fund the primary development for the expansion project, which is now entirely financed and on track to reach nameplate capacity in the first quarter of 2012, The expansion will raise the mine's annual output from 3.7 million pounds U3O8 (1425 tU) to 5.2 million pounds U3O8 (2000 tU).

First Uranium narrows Q1 losses on higher gold and uranium sales

2011-08-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

First Uranium Corp (TSE:FIU) announced Tuesday it pointed its first quarter losses as generated more revenue from gold and uranium, offset incompletely by higher expenses from maintenance at its Ezulwini mine for the three months ending June 30, the gold and uranium manufacturer posted a net loss of $28.9 million, or 15-cent loss per share, compared to a $76.9 million loss, or $0.32 loss per share, a year back.

The company's revenues rose 27.3% to $38.0 million, as regular gold selling prices rose 21% during the period, Analysts probable earnings of nil per share and $56.6 million in revenues despite the rise in gold prices, the shaft maintenance plan at its Ezulwini mine, located 40 kilometres from Johannesburg in South Africa, constricted gold production and enlarged costs at the mine by 53%.

As a result, the company sold 12,893 ounces of gold, down 6.3%. Cash costs rose to $2,344 per ounce, from $1,467 per ounce a year back still, higher selling prices caused proceeds to rise 16% to $13.8 million the company's simply operating mine also sold 31,407 pounds of uranium, generating $1.9 million in proceeds, additional than doubled from the $0.8 million generated a year ago.

Iran vows to continue 20 pct uranium enrichment

2011-08-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi said Monday Iran will not at all stop 20 percent uranium enrichment,"The enrichment of uranium to the level of 20 percent is enduring and it will never be stopped," Abbasi told the official IRNA news agency, adding that "we will raise the amount of fuel to save for Tehran research reactor,"However, "we have no plan to enrich uranium away from the current level of 20 percent," Abbasi said.

The Iranian nuclear chief said Iran has moved 20 percent uranium enrichments toward Fordo site, since Natanz enrichment facility be not as safe as Fordo, "Iranian nuclear sites including Fordo enrichment facility have been under full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), so with the intention of the IAEA's cameras are monitoring them 24 hours," he was quoted as saying.

Earlier in the month, Abbasi said that the Islamic republic have started transferring the nuclear enrichment centrifuges of its Natanz nuclear facility toward the Fordo atomic site, In June, Abbasi said Iran would triple the 20-percent uranium enrichment output following the enrichment process was moved to Fordo.

Toro Energy gamma probe results further extend Theseus Uranium Prospect

2011-08-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) has established promising results from gamma probe results which expand the Theseus Uranium prospect in Western Australia with the aerial size now defined over an 8 square kilometre area.

Significantly, this aerial extent is bigger than the combined footprint of comparable systems such as the various deposits of the Frome embayment in South Australia the mineralisation trend leftovers open in all directions except to the northwest.

Greg Hall, Toro managing director, said “the elevated grade gamma results from LP194 and LP200 are highly encouraging with greater than 1500GT results providing an near the beginning indication of potential economic grades of mineralisation in an in-situ recovery scenario, "It is early days and we are yet to undertake stream tests or other key tests however, the necessary geological building blocks appear to be in place."

Iran starts hiding uranium centrifuges in bunker

2011-08-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Iran has started moving uranium enriching centrifuges beginning its main atomic complex in Natanz to an underground bunker in Fordow, which is well confined from air strikes work is in full swing, said the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and present Vice-President Fereydoon Abbasi-Divani uranium is enrich up to 20 percent in Fordow according to the head of the organization, the manufacture meets the country’s demand of isotopes for medical purposes, including treating cancer patients and lowers the trust on their import.

However, diplomats in Vienna assessed the progress as a provocation and evidence that Teheran ignores the UN demand for winding downward its nuclear programme the U.S. State Department described the move as alarming.Isotopes for medical purposes include been producing at a scientific rector, which be build by Americans during Shah’s rule in Teheran the reactor needs up to 20 percent enriched fuel under this pretext, Iran started the manufacture of highly enriched uranium at the atomic complex in Natanz.

Six international mediators on Iran – Russia, the U.S., China, Britain, France and Germany – offered to enrich uranium in Russia and France but Iran rejected it at current Iran is doing this work in a secret bunker near the holy city of Qom the presence of which was hidden by Teheran from the International Atomic Energy Agency until American surveillance detect it the ongoing manipulation through centrifuges is an additional fact that the Iranian nuclear programme have a military component, says Vladimir Averchev, a member of Russia’s Council for Foreign and Defence Policy.

Tribal Forum Views Film That Fights Uranium Contamination of Navajo Land

2011-08-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

An award-winning documentary, "The Return of Navajo Boy," a Navajo family history involving houses complete out of uranium and a long lost boy, be a featured presentation Tuesday on the Tribal Lands and Environment Forum in Green Bay.

Made in 2000, the film and public engagement campaign are credited through triggering a federal investigation into uranium poisoning, pressuring changes in federal legislation, and following a decade of persistence, inspiring the U.S. EPA to clean up uranium contamination on the home of Navajo grandmother and activist Elsie Begay.

"While everyone is talking concerning Japan's radiation crisis, the Navajo Nation is struggling to secure a federal cleanup of Cold War uranium contamination," said filmmaker Jeff Spitz, "Navajos are dying of cancer at tall rates, and we're working through new media tools to fight for environmental justice."

Tournigan intersects higher-than-expected uranium grades at Kuriskova

2011-08-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

Tournigan Energy (CVE:TVC) announced Tuesday the consequences from a geotechnical drill hole on its Kuriskova deposit in Slovakia, returning a lot higher grades of uranium than expected.Hole LE-K-70-G was drilled in the central element of Tournigan's Kuriskova uranium property the radiometric logging returned an capture of three metres grading 0.239% uranium, including 0.6 metres at 0.76% uranium.

Additionally, the hole intersected 1.2 metres grading 1.168% uranium, as well as 0.6 metres at 2.038% uranium the hole be drilled to a depth of approximately 390 metres, in a zone with a modeled grade of 0.056% uranium, Tournigan said, creation the high-grade results surprising, and a significant improvement more than the expected grade in this part of the deposit.

In April, Tetra Tech, the company that Tournigan hired to achieve the ongoing prefeasibility study at Kuriskova, completed a resource estimate that built-in 2.3 million tonnes, grading 0.555% uranuim, for 28.5 million pounds of contained uranium in the indicated group in the inferred category, there be an estimated 3.1 million tonnes grading 0.185% uranium, for a total of 12.7 million pounds.

Laser advance may increase spread of nuclear bomb

2011-08-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Scientists have long sought easier ways to create the costly material known as enriched uranium - the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, at this time produced only in giant industrial plants one idea, a half-century old, has been to do it through nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light this approach have forever proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation.

In a little-known effort, General Electric have successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking permission beginning the US government to build a $US1 billion ($960 million) plant that would make reactor fuel by the tone so as to might be good news for the nuclear industry, but critics fear so as to if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could create bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect.

Iran has already succeeded with laser enrichment in the lab, as well as nuclear experts worry that GE's accomplishment might inspire Tehran to make a plant easily hidden from the world's eyes, Backers of the laser plan praise the technology as a hand-out for a world increasingly wary of fossil fuels to produce greenhouse gases.

GE uranium enrichment plans raise fears: report

2011-08-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

US conglomerate General Electric is seeking permission toward build a $1 billion plant for uranium enrichment by laser, a development which has raised proliferation fears, The New York Times said Sunday after testing the enrichment process for two years, GE have ask the US government to approve its plans for a massive ability in North Carolina that could produce reactor fuel through the ton, the report said, citing GE officials.

"We are currently optimizing the plan Christopher Monetta, president of Global Laser Enrichment, a additional operate by GE and Japan's Hitachi, said in an interview with the newspaper the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is probable to deliver its decision on whether to issue a commercial license used for the complex by next year, the report said.

Uranium enrichment can be used to produce together the fuel for a nuclear reactor and the fissile material for an atomic warhead new technologies are seen as potentially dangerous since they make it easier to build a bomb monetta said the plant might enrich enough uranium each year to fuel up to 60 large reactors – in theory, sufficient to power 42 million homes, or a third of all homes in the United States.

Toro Energy comes up trumps as Theseus turns into major uranium discovery

2011-08-20T00:40:00.000-07:00

Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) string of high rating results has confirmed the Theseus Prospect in Western Australia to be a huge uranium mineralised system covering over 7.5 square kilometres to continue to unlock the meaning of this discovery, Toro will now ramp up drilling targeting the definition of higher rating uranium zones.

An air-core drilling campaign kicked off at the prospect previous in the month, with 19 of the planned 60 holes having been drilled and gamma logged so far to whole depths ranging from 103 metres to 210 metres, passing from end to end a basement interface at roughly 125 metres what is so important for the discovery, is that twelve of the nineteen holes drill so far report uranium intersections through grades above 100ppm eU3O8, and widths greater than 0.5 metres - pointing in the direction of an extensive system.

Greg Hall, managing director, added “We are excited and confident by the size, extent and grade of uranium mineralisation so far intersected,"Toro’s systematic move toward to defining the location of the higher rating uranium mineralisation in Theseus is key to ensuring the system is well defined before extra closely spaced drilling is used to define a resource prepared in accordance through the JORC code.”

Northern Sask. residents protest nuclear waste dump

2011-08-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

The protesters left the community of Pinehouse on July 27, on foot about 820 kilometres, and were joined by others on the way to Regina to inquire the province to ban radioactive waste, "It's for fear of our future generations to not impose this conclusion on them that would kill our watertable, our watershed," Max Morin, single of the walk organizers, said Tuesday at a rally in front of the legislature.

"The basin over there is just one big sponge so as to keeps our air clean, too, So it's all about the love of our future generations" Pinehouse is single of three Saskatchewan communities being considered for an underground storage dump through the federal Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO).

The organization is trying to find a site so as to would serve as a dump for all the country's nuclear waste. The decision to build a centralized storage space site was made by the federal government in 2007, Estimates set the price-tag from $16 billion to $24 billion over the life of the facility, which could last 100 years, Officials will verify the suitability of communities against criteria that could rule them out -- including the being there of groundwater, fault lines or natural resources, Studies have cited the Canadian Shield as the perfect type of geological formation intended for housing a nuclear store.

UXA Resources launches rights issue to advance copper uranium exploration in Australia

2011-08-17T02:46:00.000-07:00

UXA Resources (ASX:UXA) has launched a non-renounceable pro-rata rights bid to advance exploration on the company’s copper, uranium and the base metals projects in South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia the present is 10 shares for every 25 held at the 30 August record date, priced at $0.015 per share.

UXA Resources said that the funding injection determination boost exploration at several projects, including: Dome 5 lead-zinc-silver prospect, Mundi Plains/Junction Dam Option Agreement; Polygonum-Mammoth copper-gold prospects, Mundi Plains/Junction Dam Option Agreement and Canning Basin uranium in Western Australia.UXA Resources have an interest in the Mundi Plains and the Junction Dam base metals project which borders New South Wales and South Australia.

Importantly - the project include the Dome 5 MVT style zinc lead detection made by Teck Australia Pty Ltd in a joint undertaking with PlatSearch NL in 2007, UXA Resources has an option agreement with Teck to earn up to 100% of Teck’s attention in a joint venture with PlatSearch and Eaglehawk Geological Consulting Pty Ltd (SA only), who contain the right to retain a 20% interest.

Uranium Spot Prices Fall as Holiday Season Cuts Demand, Ux Consulting Says

2011-08-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

Uranium spot prices, which weakened later than the Fukushima reactor crisis in Japan, fell 1.9 percent in the past week through the Northern Hemisphere’s summer holiday season, Ux Consulting Co. said.Uranium-oxide concentrate for direct delivery traded at $50.50 a pound in the seven days through yesterday compared with $51.50 the earlier week, Ux said in an e-mailed report today that’s based on the most competitive present tracked by the Roswell, Georgia-based company.

The spot price for the nuclear fuel has declined 24 percent given that the week before a March 11 earthquake and tsunami spoiled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station the crisis prompted a few nations to put their atomic power plans on hold china halted approval of new plants and Germany said it will shut additional than 25 percent of its nuclear capacity.

“The spot uranium market continue to edge down on price-sensitive demand,” Ux said. “August is the height of the vacation season, giving buyers yet a new reason to stay away from a market that has been languishing this summer since the implication of the Fukushima accident have set in.”

Kalahari Minerals: bid for uranium firm back on?

2011-08-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

The takeover bid for Namibia-focused uranium firm Kalahari Minerals (LON:KAH) will quickly be back on, according to Ambrian Partners analyst Duncan Hughes, now with the purpose of three months have elapsed since the UK Takeover Panel forbade Chinese firm CGNPC-URC from falling its 290 pence per share offer for Kalahari to 270 pence per share.

On May 10 the Takeover Panel ruled so as to China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group – Uranium Resources Co , would not be permitted to announce an present for Kalahari for a price of less than 290 pence per share for three months at the time, Proactive Investors reported so as to Rio Tinto, which owns the neighbouring Rossing uranium mine, might also be a rival suitor for Kalahari.

Ambrian’s Hughes now believes that an offer of 270 pence per share might be imminent, “I think that something will contain to happen here,” he told Proactive Investors, “If not CGNPC, then it will be Rio” An important signal for a renewed takeover attempt might be CGNPC’s announcement this week that it is issuing approximately £283 million in short-term bonds, with a maturity of 366 days, on the interbank market, although it said that the proceeds will be worn to “replenish the firm’s working capital and repay loans”.

Renaissance Uranium hits significant copper at Pirie Basin Project

2011-08-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Renaissance Uranium (ASX: RNU) have intersected 12 metres at 0.42% copper from 186 metres to end-of-hole at the southern portion of the Glensea Prospect, surrounded by the company's Pirie Basin Project the strongly elevated copper interval beginning reconnaissance drilling at the prospect, suggests that elevated copper grades in this area may carry on to greater depths.

The prospect is an area of well-built gravity gradient adjacent to an anomalous magnetic zone elevated gold, uranium and rare earth elements connected with the copper intersection suggest possible IOCGU or Hillside-style mineralization the business plans follow-up work to include more comprehensive basement drilling of the copper intersection, as well as additional detailed geophysical surveying and drilling in the wider prospect area.

The Pirie Basin Project in the Eastern Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, is situated within EL 3978, Renaissance has a right to earn a 75% interest in EL 3978 pursuant to an accord with a subsidiary of Stellar Resources (ASX: SRZ), Renaissance Uranium holds welfare in eight projects covering about 18,000 square kilometers with tenements situated in the key mineral provinces of South Australia and the Northern Territory.

UK to Close Sellafield Mixed Plutonium-Uranium Fuel Plant

2011-08-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said it will lock the Sellafield Mixed Oxide Plant bordering the Irish Sea on England's west coast the plant be built to to reprocess the civilian plutonium at Sellafield, the major stockpile in the world, by mixing it with uranium to make MOX fuel used for nuclear power plants.

Japan was Sellafield's biggest customer but MOX orders beginning Japanese utilities have stopped behind the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami so as to struck Japan on March 11, Since September 2010, one of the six reactors at Fukushima Daiichi had be fueled by six percent MOX fuel, rather than low enriched uranium used in the other reactors.

Announcing the closure Wednesday, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said "in order to ensure that the UK taxpayer do not carry a future financial burden from SMP that the only reasonable course of action is to lock SMP at the earliest practical opportunity" the Sellafield MOX plant has so far charge British taxpayers £1.34 billion.

Energy resources woes rise as uranium reserves tumble

2011-08-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Darwin-based ERA has also reported a first-half net loss of $121.75 million, losing from a $22.7m profit a year earlier the loss integrated a $99.4m inventory writedown because of the shelved project, which would include processed stockpiles through acid-leaching, and a surprise reduction in grades of extra stockpiles that ERA had planned to process.

The woes add to ERA's dismal first-half construction from its Ranger uranium mine after heavy rains stopped its plant, as well as to an ailing viewpoint for uranium markets in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, In response in the direction of yesterday's result, ERA's shares slumped 42c, or 10 per cent, to a seven-year low of $3.92, despite the original loss of $22.3m beating analysts' forecasts and the support of the $120m underground Ranger Deeps exploration decline.

The stock is now down 70 per cent in the long-ago year, representing a $1.3 billion loss for Rio, which has a 68.4 per cent stake in ERA.ERA chief executive Rob Atkinson said he thinking yesterday's excellent news outweighed the bad,"The good news for ERA is the looking at decline being approved and the very great exploration program we are going to embark on," he said,"Even on the downside issues, those are significant business elements, and as we increase our knowledge we do get superior levels of comfort."

Keeping the home fires burning

2011-08-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

It was recently reported that massive uranium deposits include been discovered in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, expected at up to 150,000 tonnes, of which 49,000 tonnes have been currently confirmed. If this estimation holds up, we might have one of the largest uranium reserves in the world.

Despite the scale of this find, we are nowhere near solve our energy needs. The earthquake in Japan earlier this year and the resultant injure to the Fukushima nuclear power plant revealed the inadequate safety measures adopt by the nuclear industry in general. Despite have tapped nuclear power for the past 48 years, insufficient savings have been made to improve the technology, its safety, waste removal and crisis management.

The current plan is to set up 30 nuclear reactors more than the next three decades to supply a quarter of our electricity demand. By 2050, it is probable that 25% of our energy needs will be met by nuclear power.What is sorely wanted for the kind of scale-up India envisions is a safe template for nuclear power plants that is accepted by a strict regulatory process before handing over to the private sector to construct, operate and maintain. The process for getting approval under strict safety and operational standards will contain to be streamlined to get the programme up and running. This will avoid the holdup in the regulatory and approval process that has dogged the US. We include now signed nuclear deals with nine countries, most recently with South Korea, to help develop social nuclear energy in India. A powerful watchdog needs to be in place to monitor security standards as nuclear technology and infrastructure are transfer from these partners to us.

EPA announces deal for uranium contamination probe

2011-08-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing an attempt to determine the extent of contamination at a former uranium mining site on the Navajo Nation so as to mark a high priority for assessment.

The EPA announced Monday that it has reached a agreement with Chevron USA Inc. to survey the 31-acre Mariano Lake Mine site near Gallup, N.M., and nearby homes and water wells. Chevron is to report its findings from radiological review and soil samples to the EPA early next year and is on the hook for EPA's oversight costs.

The Mariano Lake Mine is single of a handful of sites that the EPA and its Navajo Nation counterpart have under attack for investigation or cleanup so far. They've been assessing hundreds of abandoned uranium mines to address what has develop into a legacy of death and disease diagonally the reservation.

Why Russia scores in India’s nuclear market

2011-08-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

While the American companies carry on to harbour anxieties about India’s nuclear liability regime, Russia has no such issues, generous Moscow a distinctive edge over other competitors in the world’s fastest growing civil nuclear market. The information of the discovery of what is being hailed as the world’s largest uranium drop in India has prompted conflicting comments from experts. The deposits in Andhra Pradesh are expected to contain 49,000 tonnes of uranium. Indian scientists, however, believe that the measure of uranium at Tummalapalle may triple to 150,000 tonnes, which will make it world's major uranium producing mine.

The new discovery is set to decrease India’s dependence on foreign suppliers of the yellow metal. Interestingly, the disclosure of the mammoth uranium deposits coincided through US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India in July through which issues relating to the India-US civil nuclear deal figured prominently in discussions among the two sides.

In 2008 the George Bush Administration signed a deal so as to allowed the sale of reactors and nuclear fuel to India despite New Delhi having nuclear weapons and not have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The American advocates of the agreement counter the arguments of the powerful anti-nuclear lobby through pointing out that the deal would bring billions of dollars to American business and make thousands of jobs. However, the deal has become increasingly complicated unpaid to a host of factors.

Uranium outlook goes bush with the Premier

2011-07-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

The South Australia uranium explorer is still in shock behind the state government's decision last Friday to protect the Arkaroola area in the Flinders Ranges, home to the purple-spotted gudgeon, spidery wattle and yellow-footed rock wallaby.Can we adjoin endangered Premier? Mike Rann, visiting the area very last August, was spellbound by the "compelling beauty" and ordered the ground to be specified "unprecedented" protection.

Emerging from a trading halt yesterday, Marathon shares be smashed by 38 per cent. Chairman Peter Williams meets Resources Minister Tom Koutsantonis tomorrow intended for a robust exchange of views.

Arkaroola covers Marathon's flagship Mt Gee project, the country's fifth-biggest immature uranium mine. Marathon has spent $20 million on Mt Gee in capitalised expenses and $10m in written-off direct costs and is on the books at $15.7m. Williams may be concerned to ask the good minister why Marathon was invited to renew the lease in January (which it did) when moves to defend the area were in train

First Uranium shares plummet after South Africa orders stop on waste disposal

2011-07-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

TORONTO - Shares in miner First Uranium (TSX:FIU) tumbled 15 per cent Tuesday after the company was ordered by the South African government to stop disposing waste at its tailings storage sites.

The Toronto-based company, which operates gold and uranium mines in South Africa, says its Mine Waste Solutions unit was ordered by regulators to stop disposing the waste due to "alleged issues regarding pipeline maintenance and non-reporting.''Stock in the company closed down nine cents to 50 cents Tuesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after a trading halt Monday.

First Uranium says the regulator could lift the restrictions once the company can show it is in compliance.Until then, it has suspended operations — though First Uranium says it believes its is in compliance with regulations and will seek a legal injunction to resume operations.

Union Deal Reached in Dispute at Honeywell’s Metropolis Plant

2011-07-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

The union representing about 230 workers at a input southern Illinois plant that makes nuclear fuel has reached a tentative three-year deal by means of the company that locked them out more than a year ago in Superman’s adoptive hometown, together sides confirmed Wednesday.

Terms of the deal involving Honeywell’s Metropolis plant be not released, pending a vote by the union’s members after bargainers initial resolve how to transition the workers back totheir jobs at the nation’s only plant so as to begins refining uranium for eventual use in nuclear power plants.

Honeywell said the union has tell the company it will there the tentative contract to the workers for a vote Tuesday. If the deal is accepted, the hourly workers by Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules have to be retrained and re certified before returning, supplanting the replacement workers who contain filled in since shortly after the labor dispute began in June of last year.

State royalty plan hits Toro hopes for uranium project

2011-07-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Adelaide-based junior said yesterday the ecological assessment on its Wiluna project would be open for public comment from Monday, which would build it the first of Western Australia's new uranium projects to achieve that important milestone.

But the news was overshadowed by Mines Minister Norman Moore announce the condition would initiate a 5 per cent royalty on uranium and magnetite iron ore -- a lower grade than the more widely known Pilbara ore.Mr Moore said it was predictable the state would receive about $10 million in 2013-14 and $28m in 2014-15 beginning uranium royalties.

"Uranium mining presents a significant occasion to further diversify WA's resources sector and also make a significant prospect contribution to the state's economyPremier Colin Barnett lifted the state's longstanding ban on uranium mining when he take office in 2008, which has seen increased interest within the sector.

Forum Uranium to earn up to 65% of Aurizon's Matamec Kipawa project

2011-07-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Canadian explorer Forum Uranium Corp. (CVE:FDC) reported Thursday so as to it has sign an options deal with Aurizon Mines (TSE: ARZ) to make up to a 65% stake in Aurizon’s Matamec Kipawa rare earths deposit, in southwestern Quebec.The property, located 95 kilometres northeast of North Bay, Ont., adjoins Matamec Exploration’s Zeus project.

Three blocks of claims, which cover up an area of 6,960 hectares, be optioned from Aurizon. The West, Central and East blocks encase 120 claims, for 6,960 hectares, and the belonging is underlain by part of the Kipawa Alkaline complex.

According to the option deal, Forum can make a 50% interest if it completes $200,000 in exploration in the first 12 months and a further $150,000 in looking at, and at least 1,000 meters of drilling, within 24 months of the agreement.Further, Forum has the choice to make an extra 15% stake in the project if it establishes an NI 43-101 compliant resource estimation on the property in four years time. During the earn-in period, Forum will act as worker, the company said in a statement.

EDITORIAL: Protect the Grand Canyon

2011-07-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

Congressional Republicans are continuing their physical attack on the nation’s environmental safeguards with a proposal to reverse a lately imposed 20-year ban on mining 1 million acres bordering the Grand Canyon.

Democrats were unable to strip this rapacious suggestion from an Interior spending bill that was approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. Never intelligence that 3,500 mining claims include been filed in the Grand Canyon area alone. Never mind that uranium mining would generate toxic wastes that would infect the Colorado River, on which millions of Americans rely for drinking water.

Never mind the blight that mining would impose on an iconic landscape. Never mind that the moratorium has little effect on the nation’s uranium supply, the majority of which comes from New Mexico and Wyoming.Republicans have a rising fondness for managing environmental protections from end to end the budget process.

Chinese company bids for uranium junior

2011-07-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Perth-based uranium junior the past announced the 61c-a-share bid and said it strongly opposed it because it sees the go as timed to take advantage of the company's low share price that has been driven downward by negative sentiment following Japan's nuclear crisis.

Hanlong's bid is to secure manage of Bannerman's two uranium interests in Namibia, with its flagship Etango project situated close to Rio Tinto's massive Rossing mine.Bannerman said that the company had been undertaking a procedure to identify a suitable joint venture partner to facilitate the financing, development and process of the Etango project.

"As part of this process, Bannerman has been in discussions with a number of huge and well-funded parties," it said."As part of its proposal, Hanlong is looking for a three-month period of exclusivity. Bannerman has determined that it is not appropriate to grant Hanlong exclusivity given the nonappearance of agreement on price and the conditionality of the proposal."

Why Canada supported a uranium cartel

2011-07-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

In 1971, the United States, its fiscal location in disarray, abruptly declared to the world that its currency would no longer be backed by gold, its companies would take pleasure in lavish new export subsidies, and of all things, foreign uranium would not be permissible into the U.S. market. This was a huge shock to the earth trading system and, not incidentally, a major impetus for the advances in deal law of the coming decades.

For Canada, the blow was unexpected and undeserved. As frequently happens, when the U.S. lashes out at enemies overseas, its friends earlier to home get sideswiped. In this case, the Canadian uranium industry had been mostly developed in response to U.S. demand -- at first for the U.S. nuclear weapons program, then for its rapidly growing civil nuclear program. Canadian miners from Uranium City to Elliott Lake work to oil American reactors and American bombs. Canadian demand was small throughout this whole period, even when Ontario started to build Candu reactors.

By the late 1960s, competition in the middle of U.S. reactor builders such as Gulf Atomic, GE and Westinghouse, had become intense. They invented a original marketing tool: buy our reactor and we’ll guarantee you a lifetime provide of enriched uranium at a low, low price!

Board OKs letter supporting uranium mining

2011-07-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

The county supervisors approved Tuesday a letter behind uranium mining in Northern Arizona including lands around the Grand Canyon. The board voted to straight staff to submit a letter to National Association of Counties to hold uranium mining on federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service Park in Northern Arizona including the Arizona Strip area.

In 2009, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar withdrew regarding one million acres of land near the Grand Canyon beginning new mining operations for two years. Salazar recently extended the moratorium for six months on the public park in Northern Arizona.

One of three sections of the ground under moratorium in Mohave County is called the north segregation area, which includes land south of Colorado City and Fredonia. There is currently individual active seven-acre mine located south of Pipe Springs National Monument. One woman thought at Tuesday’s board meeting that uranium with the intention of is mine would not drain into the Grand Canyon and that the uranium would naturally drain into washes anyhow because of erosion. Another woman said Arizona Mine Inspector Joe Hart of Kingman told her the mining process would create the environment cleaner.

Areva sweet-talks NPCIL, offers uranium mine stake

2011-07-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

French energy major Areva, which is supply nuclear fuel for Indian reactors, has accessible partnership stakes in the direction of the state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) in its uranium producing mines abroad. "We have accessible to NPCIL and the Atomic Energy Commission to invest through us in our new and existing uranium mining projects," chairman and managing director, Areva India, Arthur de Montalembert told HT in a limited chat.

"NPCIL has shown interest and talks are succeeding for a stake in some uranium mines in Africa."Areva is one the largest producers of uranium and has mines in Canada, Kazakhstan and Africa.The company will provide NPCIL with six of its European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) in an estimated R60, 000 crore deal. It is hoping designed for an early on start to the construction of one of the world's biggest nuclear power complexes at Jaitpur in Maharashtra.

The EPR reactors to be complete for Jaitpur nuclear power plant is a third-generation reactor and is touted as the most advanced in its class. The Jaitpur plant is single of several nuclear power developments planned for a 200-km strip of the Maharashtra coast, south of Mumbai, with a total generating capacity of around 33,000-MW. India at present has 4,700-MW of nuclear generating capacity.

Rumors of Iran-Venezuela uranium deal ‘a big lie’: ambassador

2011-07-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

“We have uranium reserves and don’t sell or consume it,” he said, adding that the assert about shipment of uranium from Venezuela to Tehran via Damascus is “a big lie”. Velasquez crazy the statements during a press conference in a ceremony which was detained to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Venezuela’s national day on the Venezuelan Embassy in Tehran on Sunday.

Velasquez also said Venezuelan President Huqo Chavez is in good health. One of the major reasons for the negative propaganda about Chavez’s health in the U.S. and European media is to generate a public panic in Venezuela and its friendly country, Velasquez stated.

The major goal of the Venezuelan government’s opponents at home and abroad is twisting the truth in an attempt to propose that President Chavez is not able to lead the country any longer and “we should think of finding a successor for him,” he added. Velasquez said in spite of imperialists’ will to get news about Chavez’s death, he is in good health and is at present leading the country

Uranium: This Time It's Different

2011-07-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

The global spot uranium price display as derived by industry consultant TradeTech had risen by US$1.50 over the end-April price to US$56.50/lb, having trade down to US$50 after the March tsunami damaged the Fukushima reactors and unexpectedly sparked a rethink on global nuclear energy policy. It appeared that order destruction was not as significant as a panicky market first assumed. But June has brought a dissimilar story.

TradeTech has marked its end-June spot cost indicator at US$51.50/lb, representing a 9% drop from May. The consultant notes there was a big hurry to sell in the last couple of days of June at a time when buyers are still uncertain over what path worldwide nuclear energy might take from here. One “aggressive” seller was looking to place material fast, but the fact remains that in the short expression at least, the supply-side looks overladen.

The US government is also affecting to re-enrich depleted tailings for sale to finance further clean-up projects, and traders assume that provide may come onto the market in coming months. Japan has shut down many of reactors and a few may never be restart, including the six at Fukushima, so stockpiled uranium inventories also add to latent near-term supply. There seems little reason for buyers not to reverse off in price.

Uranium mining concerns Dan River Region farmers

2011-07-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

Local farmers worry a nearby uranium site might hurt the marketability of their products. More than three dozen farmers, frequently from the Dan River Region, asked the National Academy of Sciences to include impacts to agriculture in its statement on uranium mining in Virginia due in December.

The farmers, along with five water and environmental groups, submit joint explanation to the study panel, asking that its statement include risks of possible contamination to the food chain from uranium mining and milling in Virginia. Farmers fear customers’ awareness of risks to food products could hurt demand and their bottom lines. Agriculture is Virginia’s major industry with an economic impact of $55 billion annually.

Reputation is the whole thing for Our Father’s Farm in Gretna, said owner Jacques “Jack” Fuhrmann. The farm’s selling point is contribution all-natural beef, poultry, eggs and seasonal produce without using chemicals. Most clients are in Lynchburg, Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake. Sales are direct, so clients know where the food is coming from.

Uranium prices to rebound as Japan disaster memories fade

2011-07-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

Uranium prices slumped in the come around of the nuclear disaster in Japan earlier this year, but it looks like any price fault in 2011 will be short-lived as memories fade and demand for electricity continues to grow. Adam Schatzker, forecaster with RBC Capital Markets, notes that China, India and South Korea are maintain their nuclear build plans even as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Vietnam include announce new nuclear plans as well.

“The market will start in on to recover in 2012 as the events at Fukushima become less of a driving force and the supply-demand essentials re-assert themselves,” he said in a note. “There is not enough uranium production, either current or planned, to gratify reactor needs, initial core requirements and inventory for new reactors. A sustainably higher cost should help resolve this gap.”

Germany’s threats to shut down all of its reactors will be upturned, and the threat of Japan final its reactors are unlikely, his said.Mr. Schatzker forecasts uranium prices to be range-bound at less than US$60 a pound for the rest of 2011 and may yet drop under US$50 a pound depending on what Japanese utilities do with planned deliveries for the remainder of the year.

Cameco shops for uranium, eyes Africa

2011-06-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Canadian uranium producer Cameco Corp is shopping for growth-stage uranium projects and will consider opportunities in Africa, the company's received chief executive told Reuters on Wednesday.Cameco is "scouring the world" for mine that might be in production within 10 years, said Tim Gitzel, who will take above the top job at the company on Friday.

That global search might take the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based miner to Africa, the only major uranium-producing area in the world where it does not have operations. Cameco produced about 22.8 million pound of uranium in 2010 from projects in North America and Kazakhstan.

"We wouldn't hesitate to go to Africa if we can find a project that made sense to Cameco," said Gitzel, who effort for French nuclear giant Areva before joining Cameco as chief operating officer in 2007.