E.Z.I. confident

Press, 2 December 1978, Page 17

E.Z.I. confident

NZPA Melbourne EZ Industries. Ltd — one of the two partners in the: 1 Ranger uranium project — is confident that Australia] will be able to sell all the! uranium it is producing by the 19905. Speaking over heckling by anti-uranium demonstrators, the company’s chairman, Sir Edward Cheon, told the annual meeting in Melbourne 1 that recent downward revisions of market estimates had been predominantly for the short term. “Australia’s future markets for uranium lie mainly in the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, and because of existing uranium supply contracts, these markets offer only limited pros- ; pects for Australian exports in the early 1980 s. “However, we believe that there are good opportunities!;

to sell all Ranger production, and that demand will rise during the 1980 s,” he said. | EZ Industries’ sharejholders would not be asked! to contribute to the financing of the company’s 13.75 per cent share of the capital contribution to the Ranger project; other methods of financing the share were under negotiation. EZ Industries, and its two partners in the Golden Grove copper prospect — Amax Exploration and Aztec Exploration — have negotiated heads of agreement with ESSO under which ESSO may earn an interest of up to 31.17 per cent by financing further exploration and development. Sir Edward Cohen stopped the stormy meeting when the anti-uranium demonstrators mobbed the stage.