Risk of overindulgence in uranium
The Advertiser: Risk of overindulgence in uranium [16aug05]
The European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has forecast uranium resources will be severely depleted in the next 50 years, jeopardising plans to increase the number of nuclear power stations.
UIC estimates the known inferred and probable resources -- about 3.6 million tonnes -- amount to 50 times present yearly consumption.
The association said current estimates put uranium resources, including those not yet economic or properly explored, at volumes to fulfil about 200 years' use at today's consumption rates.
By Robin Bromby
16aug05
URANIUM investors may be getting ahead of themselves by pushing up share prices whenever a company announces it has a sniff of yellowcake.
The message coming out of two industry bodies is that, contrary to some scenarios, there is plenty of uranium, and the chances of a world shortage -- even with China's demand -- are slight, if they exist at all.
Yesterday, Yamarna Goldfields (yam.ASX:Quote,News) became the latest junior to excite investors after telling the market it had acquired a uranium project -- on, of all places, the remote coral atoll of Niue, in the South Pacific.
The company said geological modelling showed the island contained uranium deposits of equal or greater quantity to Olympic Dam, the largest in the world.
Yamarna (yam.ASX:Quote,News) will take up to 80 per cent of the project from Canberra-based Avian Mining, which did the modelling work in conjunction with government scientists from Australia and New Zealand. It will also spend $1.2 million on exploration work.
Yarmana's shares (yam.ASX:Quote,News) rose 22 per cent, with 57 million traded.
Investors are reacting to uranium announcements because of the soaring Chinese demand and scenarios sketched by various organisations.
The European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has forecast uranium resources will be severely depleted in the next 50 years, jeopardising plans to increase the number of nuclear power stations.
Ian Hore-Lacy, manager of the Melbourne-based Uranium Information Centre, said this line was disinformation pushed by the Greens and other anti-nuclear organisations. "It's nonsense," he said.
Mr Hore-Lacy also warned that investors who backed uranium may not get the price ride they were clearly hoping for.
"It's not going to go to the astronomical levels that oil may well do."
Mr Hore-Lacey said that, contrary to popular belief, uranium was found around the world very widely, forming in far more rock types than oil.
UIC estimates the known inferred and probable resources -- about 3.6 million tonnes -- amount to 50 times present yearly consumption.
Moreover, a new exploration cycle was starting with the likelihood that resources would increase dramatically over the next decade.
His view is about to be backed by the London-based World Nuclear Association, which will issue a new paper that states uranium supplies will be more than adequate. "The world faces many challenges in achieving a global expansion of nuclear energy to fully realise the technology's clean-energy potential. A limited supply of uranium resources is not among them," the WNA report stated.
The association said current estimates put uranium resources, including those not yet economic or properly explored, at volumes to fulfil about 200 years' use at today's consumption rates.
Moreover, technology had improved since the first uranium boom of the 1970s.
Miners, including those at the Beverley operation in South Australia, were now able to use in-situ leaching -- a process by which miners leave the ore in the ground and remove the metal by pumping a solution through the ore and bringing the uranium to the surface.
The technology allows for smaller deposits to be considered economic.
WNA, on the back of a tripling of the spot price on uranium since 2003, sees more junior explorers entering the business.
That trend continues to gather pace in Australia.
Yamarna and Matrix Metals joined the growing crowd yesterday. Yamarna's shares rose 0.2c to 1.1c.
Matrix said it had been granted two tenements north of Mt Isa and the old Mary Kathleen uranium mine.
Rock chip samples at one tenement had assayed at 1.18 per cent uranium oxide.
The European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has forecast uranium resources will be severely depleted in the next 50 years, jeopardising plans to increase the number of nuclear power stations.
UIC estimates the known inferred and probable resources -- about 3.6 million tonnes -- amount to 50 times present yearly consumption.
The association said current estimates put uranium resources, including those not yet economic or properly explored, at volumes to fulfil about 200 years' use at today's consumption rates.
By Robin Bromby
16aug05
URANIUM investors may be getting ahead of themselves by pushing up share prices whenever a company announces it has a sniff of yellowcake.
The message coming out of two industry bodies is that, contrary to some scenarios, there is plenty of uranium, and the chances of a world shortage -- even with China's demand -- are slight, if they exist at all.
Yesterday, Yamarna Goldfields (yam.ASX:Quote,News) became the latest junior to excite investors after telling the market it had acquired a uranium project -- on, of all places, the remote coral atoll of Niue, in the South Pacific.
The company said geological modelling showed the island contained uranium deposits of equal or greater quantity to Olympic Dam, the largest in the world.
Yamarna (yam.ASX:Quote,News) will take up to 80 per cent of the project from Canberra-based Avian Mining, which did the modelling work in conjunction with government scientists from Australia and New Zealand. It will also spend $1.2 million on exploration work.
Yarmana's shares (yam.ASX:Quote,News) rose 22 per cent, with 57 million traded.
Investors are reacting to uranium announcements because of the soaring Chinese demand and scenarios sketched by various organisations.
The European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has forecast uranium resources will be severely depleted in the next 50 years, jeopardising plans to increase the number of nuclear power stations.
Ian Hore-Lacy, manager of the Melbourne-based Uranium Information Centre, said this line was disinformation pushed by the Greens and other anti-nuclear organisations. "It's nonsense," he said.
Mr Hore-Lacy also warned that investors who backed uranium may not get the price ride they were clearly hoping for.
"It's not going to go to the astronomical levels that oil may well do."
Mr Hore-Lacey said that, contrary to popular belief, uranium was found around the world very widely, forming in far more rock types than oil.
UIC estimates the known inferred and probable resources -- about 3.6 million tonnes -- amount to 50 times present yearly consumption.
Moreover, a new exploration cycle was starting with the likelihood that resources would increase dramatically over the next decade.
His view is about to be backed by the London-based World Nuclear Association, which will issue a new paper that states uranium supplies will be more than adequate. "The world faces many challenges in achieving a global expansion of nuclear energy to fully realise the technology's clean-energy potential. A limited supply of uranium resources is not among them," the WNA report stated.
The association said current estimates put uranium resources, including those not yet economic or properly explored, at volumes to fulfil about 200 years' use at today's consumption rates.
Moreover, technology had improved since the first uranium boom of the 1970s.
Miners, including those at the Beverley operation in South Australia, were now able to use in-situ leaching -- a process by which miners leave the ore in the ground and remove the metal by pumping a solution through the ore and bringing the uranium to the surface.
The technology allows for smaller deposits to be considered economic.
WNA, on the back of a tripling of the spot price on uranium since 2003, sees more junior explorers entering the business.
That trend continues to gather pace in Australia.
Yamarna and Matrix Metals joined the growing crowd yesterday. Yamarna's shares rose 0.2c to 1.1c.
Matrix said it had been granted two tenements north of Mt Isa and the old Mary Kathleen uranium mine.
Rock chip samples at one tenement had assayed at 1.18 per cent uranium oxide.
posted by Marcel at 5:12 AM
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