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DJ Australian Uranium Sales To China Unlikely Before 08 -Min
(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)CANBERRA, Apr 02, 2006 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) --Australian Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane Monday said he didn't expect uranium exports to China to begin until after 2008, with significant volumes unlikely before 2010.
Chinese Premier Jiabao Wen is expected to sign a nuclear safeguards agreement in Canberra later Monday, a deal that will allow Australian uranium to be exported to China for energy production.
But Macfarlane said all of Australia's uranium production was fully committed until 2008.
"It's unlikely that Chinese uptake of Australian uranium will occur in the next two years," Macfarlane told ABC Radio.
"Realistically, in terms of any significant quantity, we're probably looking at sometime past 2010," he said.
Australia's uranium exports are sourced from three mines: Ranger in the Northern Territory, operated by Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. (ERA.AU), a 68.4%-owned unit of Rio Tinto PLC (RTP); BHP Billiton Ltd.'s (BHP) Olympic Dam operation; and General Atomics' Beverley mine, both in South Australia state.
A fourth mine, the Honeymoon Project has permits to mine uranium and is expected to decide whether to bring the project into commercial production by mid-2006.
Macfarlane said he expected more uranium mines to be developed in Australia to meet growing Chinese demand for nuclear energy.
But Macfarlane said the opposition Labor Party should dump its "antiquated" three-mines uranium policy to help promote investment in the industry.
"Development of uranium mines is a multi-billion exercise and companies are only going to invest in that sort of exploration - and potential development - of those mines on the basis that they can be sure that a change of government won't see them high and dry," he said.
Australia, which hosts the world's biggest uranium reserves, exports all the output of its three uranium mines. The government stipulates Australian uranium can only be used for power generation and exports are limited to countries that have signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
China, a signatory to the treaty, plans to increase its nuclear capacity fivefold by 2020 and will rely heavily on imported uranium to power its nuclear power plants, according to the industry-backed Uranium Information Center.
Nuclear power currently accounts for only 3% of China's energy production.
-By Barbara Adam, Dow Jones Newswires;
61-2-6208-0901; barbara.adam@dowjones.com
-Edited by Paul Godby
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-02-06 1845ET
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