reprinted with permission from [John Hallam]
Poison Fire, Sacred Earth,
TESTIMONIES, LECTURES, CONCLUSIONS,
THE WORLD URANIUM HEARING, SALZBURG 1992
pages 173-174
What I'm trying to do is, to situate Australia in the context
of the global uranium market. Uranium mining began in Australia
back in the 1940's, very significantly for the United Kingdom
Nuclear Weapons Program. Much of what was exploded on the Monte
Bello Islands, at Maralinga, was, in fact, mined in Australia from
1954 at Rum Jungle and from 1956 at the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine
in Queensland. Mining actually started at Radium Hill, and 40
percent of the miners who worked at Radium Hill have subsequently
died of lung cancer.
Australia has probably got the largest single slab of uranium
reserves in the world, and this is the critical point that I want
to make in this presentation. . . . So, Australia has somewhere
between 480,000 tons of yellowcake and 1.3 million tons of
yellowcake plus. Now, in comparison, South Africa, the next
largest country in terms of reserves, has 317,000 tons, Niger --
I'm reading this in descending order of how much they have
according to the official OECD estimates -- has 173,000 tons,
Canada, although it is the largest producer, is only the fourth
largest in terms of actual reserves with 139,000 tons, the U.S.
which used to be the largest producer has 111,000 tons, Namibia
between 90,000 and 100,000 tons, all at Roessing and France way
down the list at between 46,000 and 50,000 tons.
. . . What I try to do is, simply give you an idea of what
Australia has got and why the nuclear power industry sees
Australia as important. Now, there are a lot of contradictions in
the position that Australia has. On the one hand, it is seen as a
potential uranium bonanza as it has the largest and amongst the
richest deposits in the world. But on the other hand, Australia
has been unable to penetrate the yellowcake market very much. . .
. We have the same bizarre, nonsensical situation in Australia
that exists in Canada where the companies want to expand
production very considerably, even though their own market
analysts tell them that there is a glut on the market, that the
current spot prices for uranium are well below the cost of
production, that the contract prices are moving down . . .
Contract prices which make mines like Ranger and Roxby Downs
viable are moving down and are approaching the cost of production.
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John Hallam
John Hallam, Australia. Member of Friends of the Earth, author.
I'm going to start going into something a little bit different
from what Gracelyn has said. In contrast to the very moving story
which she has told, mine is mostly numbers. And for a variety of
reasons I have not been provident enough to put the numbers down
on this machine, so I suggest that you get out your notebooks. I
will try to be brief and I will try to be really simple.
What I'm trying to do is, to situate Australia in the context
of the global uranium market. Uranium mining began in Australia
back in the 1940's, very significantly for the United Kingdom
Nuclear Weapons Program. Much of what was exploded on the Monte
Bello Islands, at Maralinga, was, in fact, mined in Australia from
1954 at Rum Jungle and from 1956 at the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine
in Queensland. Mining actually started at Radium Hill, and 40
percent of the miners who worked at Radium Hill have subsequently
died of lung cancer.
Rum Jungle, the mine that started in 1954, has been an
environmental disaster with the destruction of the tailings dam
and major damage to the Finniss River. There has also been major
environmental destruction at the Mull Mine(?) and the Elsherano(?)
Mines in the Northern Territory which have been documented most
recently by Australia's Office of the Supervising Scientist in the
annual report that it puts out every year. By 1970, uranium mining
had ceased in Australia with the scaling down of weapons testing
after the test ban in 1963. However, it was very soon to revive
with the reopening of the Mary Kathleen Mine.
Australia has probably got the largest single slab of uranium
reserves in the world, and this is the critical point that I want
to make in this presentation. The estimates of how much uranium
we've got vary between 700 and 10,000 tons in a report done for
Greenpeace a couple of years back, to 480,000 tons in a report
produced by the OECD, in fact, the OECD 1990 Redbook. However, if
you simply take the quantity of ore which is in the Roxby Downs,
that is to say the Olympic Dam uranium deposit which is of concern
to the Kokotha people since it's on their land, and you multiply
the quantity of ore by the percentage of U-308 that the
Environmental Impact Statement says is there, you come up with the
astonishing figure of 1.3 million tons for the Roxby Downs deposit
alone. So, Australia has somewhere between 480,000 tons of
yellowcake and 1.3 million tons of yellowcake plus. Now, in
comparison, South Africa, the next largest country in terms of
reserves, has 317,000 tons, Niger -- I'm reading this in
descending order of how much they have according to the official
OECD estimates -- has 173,000 tons, Canada, although is the
largest producer, is only the fourth largest in terms of actual
reserves with 139,000 tons, the U.S. which used to be the largest
producer has 111,000 tons, Namibia between 90,000 and 100,000
tons, all at Roessing and France way down the list at between
46,000 and 50,000 tons.
Now, of those quantities of ore, the Olympic Dam deposit alone
has between 360,000 tons according to official estimates and 1.3
million tons if you arrive at your estimate by the method of
multiplying out what the Environmental Impact Statement says is
there. The next largest deposit in Australia is the Jabiluka
deposit, which is not yet being mined, with between 175,000 and
200,000 tons, followed by Ranger and then the rest all
considerably less. What I try to do is, simply give you an idea of
what Australia has got and why the nuclear power industry sees
Australia as important. Now, there are a lot of contradictions in
the position that Australia has. On the one hand, it is seen as a
potential uranium bonanza as it has the largest and amongst the
richest deposits in the world. But on the other hand, Australia
has been unable to penetrate the yellowcake market very much. And
it is very clear that in a foreseeable future, certainly till
well-passed the end of the century, there is not going to be room
for Australia to make much of an expansion in its uranium
production. This is interesting because there have been ambitious
plans and there continue to be ambitious plans precisely to expand
Australia's uranium production. We have the same bizarre,
nonsensical situation in Australia that exists in Canada where the
companies want to expand production very considerably, even though
their own market analysts tell them that there is a glut on the
market, that the current spot prices for uranium are well below
the cost of production, that the contract prices are moving down
and currently the costs of production start round 15 dollars a
pound. Spot prices are between 7.50 dollars and 8.50 dollars per
pound. Contract prices which make mines like Ranger and Roxby
Downs viable are moving down and are approaching the cost of
production.
Australia's production has actually declined over the last few
years as indeed has the production of every other uranium
producing country. Australia in 1982 was producing 4,400 tons of
uranium, by 1989 at a decline of 3,800 tons, but currently, Ranger
has actually suspended its mining operations. ERA (Energy
Resources of Australia), the operators of Ranger, are buying on
the spot market in the U.S. and onselling to the U.S. customers
and indeed to other customers. Olympic Dam is only managing to get
rid of 60 percent of its production which it manages to produce
very, very cheaply as it is a by-product operation. So we are
looking at this situation where the existing producers are facing
grave difficulties where one of them has actually suspended
production and is finding it cheaper and, indeed, is finding it
profitable to buy for seven bucks fifty on-the-spot-market and
then to sell it into its long-term contract between 20 to 25
dollars a pound where the other producer is only able to get rid
of about 60 percent of its production and has to simply stockpile
the rest. And yet, we still have a strong lobby upon the owners of
Jabaluka from Nenison(?), who are incidentally in the process of
going bankrupt and who are discussing selling their Kungara
Project to Total Mining Company from France and get -- even though
they are in that situation, they've been pressurizing the
Australian government, they've been pressurizing the Aboriginal
community very, very heavily to allow the Kungara Project to go
ahead to pour the uranium into the already glutted market.
I think what I'll do is wrap it up at that point. I think I've
made the primary point that I want to. There is a lot that could
be said about uranium mining in Australia. Much has been said in
this book, Uranium Mining in Australia. It's available outside.
There is a considerable opposition to uranium mining in Australia.
Part of that opposition is represented by a movement against
uranium mining, they produce the magazine Third Opinion that is
also available outside. I'll leave it at that.
Thank you very much for having me.
Father John (Moderator)
We are going ahead to hear something from Maralinga land. Please
welcome!