Pancontinental finds more uranium

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34029, 18 December 1975, Page 23

Pancontinental finds more uranium

f.Veto Zealand Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY. “Substantial additions” to the uranium ore reserves of Pancontinental Mining. Ltd, at Jabiluka, Northern Territory, and the company hopes to be given Government approval to develop leases, said the chairman (Mr A. J. Grey) at the annual meeting.

( If this approval was re- [ ceived the company’s Jabi-i I luka deposit could be in pro- ! duction by 1979 — the opti-l (mum date for Australia’sentry in the world uranium! (market, he said. ' A considerable amount of| I engineering and environmen-i I tai protection work had been J (carried out at Jabiluka dur-1 ing the past year and thei (company was now ready to! (seek Government approval to develop the field. The market for uranium: I oxide had in the past 18: months turned from a! buyer’s market into a sell-1 er’s market with the price rising from about SUSIS a pound a year ago, to about SUS3O a pound, Mr Grey said. Virtually no uranium was (being offered in the world : today as producers stated I they did not have the production capability. ( “Indeed the uranium mar-, ket is entering an unstable I state, because of the fear on! the part of the utilities that i thev will not be able to ob- ;

■tain uranium when they 'need it. “Australia could exert, a (moderating influence on the jmarket and allay the fears jof the utilities concerning | the availability of uranium | supply,” he said.

The problem of uranium i; supply was not insufficient j reserves on a long-term d basis, but inadequate produci‘tion capability at the time The product was needed. The combined initial proi duct ion capability of Australia at the rates which the I; country’s uranium reserve •holders individually con- ( template could be about . 13,000 short tons of uranium : oxide a year, starting by about 1979. The development of thisi production capacity would! 1 produce export income of [ over sAustsoom a year and; generate capita! investment! ‘of over s7om. The development of the(Country’s uranium resources! J would provide jobs for bell ween 3000 and 5000 work■ers, Mr Grey said.