The idea that Australia has plenty of uranium to provide the world with energy needs a closer look. The Ranger mine is due to close in 2008, with processing continuing to 2011. Beverley is a minor player providing >1000 tonnes/annum. BHP Billiton reported in its last quarterly report that copper and uranium production from the Olympic Dam underground mine is falling due to low ore grades. So everything depends on its expansion as an open pit. If it passed its pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, digging will start in 2009, reaching the ore deposits in 2013. Four years of diesel-powered excavation will mean expensive imports of crude oil, more energy will be required for the water desalination and associated pipeline, and for a rail link and an extension to Roxby Downs. The uranium is a co-product with copper, silver and gold as the grade is too low for its extraction as a single product. So the go-ahead depends on the maintenance of the copper price during the next seven years. Australia supplies the US, Europe, South Korea and Japan with yellow cake (U3O8), so if it supplies China, it will have to disappoint its current customers. The same applies if it decides to generate its own nuclear power. If the fossil energy input needed to provide others with electrical energy exceeds what they gain, the whole exercise is a nonsense.
John BusbyJun 26th, 2006 - 13:46:51
The idea that Australia has plenty of uranium to provide the world with energy needs a closer look. The Ranger mine is due to close in 2008, with processing continuing to 2011. Beverley is a minor player providing >1000 tonnes/annum. BHP Billiton reported in its last quarterly report that copper and uranium production from the Olympic Dam underground mine is falling due to low ore grades. So everything depends on its expansion as an open pit. If it passed its pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, digging will start in 2009, reaching the ore deposits in 2013. Four years of diesel-powered excavation will mean expensive imports of crude oil, more energy will be required for the water desalination and associated pipeline, and for a rail link and an extension to Roxby Downs. The uranium is a co-product with copper, silver and gold as the grade is too low for its extraction as a single product. So the go-ahead depends on the maintenance of the copper price during the next seven years. Australia supplies the US, Europe, South Korea and Japan with yellow cake (U3O8), so if it supplies China, it will have to disappoint its current customers. The same applies if it decides to generate its own nuclear power. If the fossil energy input needed to provide others with electrical energy exceeds what they gain, the whole exercise is a nonsense.
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