They could have written a more reassuring headline...
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Uranium Producers Prepare for Boom
August 19, 2005
Posted to the web August 19, 2005
Wendy Hall
Johannesburg
ANTICIPATED rises in the price of uranium over the next decade, driven by demand for a clean, sustainable energy source, have prompted producer countries to develop their production facilities.
SA, the fourth-largest uranium producer with 8% of the world's reserves, has declared it a protected mineral resource in line with the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002.
Neal Froneman, CEO of South African uranium miner Aflease, says government is "crying out for the development of this strategic resource for export, and has been supportive of the industry".
SA is in a position to benefit from uranium as a primary energy source and from the value derived from increased exports.
The uranium price has trebled over the past three years, driven by the expected increase in nuclear-energy generation.
Unlike SA's less restrictive approach to developing its reserves, the Australian federal government is to take control of the licensing duties for uranium deposits from the government of the Northern Territory, where most of its uranium reserves are.
Australia has the world's largest uranium reserves.
Froneman says Australia's situation is different from SA's as Australia used to employ a three-rule system allowing only three uranium mines to operate. This was due to Labour Party concerns about nuclear proliferation and disposal of waste in the 1980s.
As a result the Northern Territory government has not issued a new mining permit for more than two decades, though it now recognises uranium's strategic importance as a sustainable energy source, helping to unlock $2,9bn in uranium assets.
SA has taken a more moderate approach. Former minerals and energy minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told Parliament in June that government would announce a special dispensation for licensing uranium exploration, prospecting and mining to secure supplies for SA's nuclear industry.
In Canada, which has 14% of the world's reserves, the responsibility for licensing and regulation rests mainly with the federal government via the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
Regulations cover environmental and land rights issues as well as workers' health and safety.
SA's minerals and energy chief director of nuclear affairs, Tseliso Maqubela, says SA's safety standards compare with the best in the world, and "in certain areas we're more stringent". The development of the National Nuclear Regulation Act in 1999 set up a National Nuclear Regulator to oversee the industry.
The act protects mineworkers. It stipulates the maximum levels of exposure to radiation allowed. Sufficient ventilation is needed at uranium mines to remove radon gas and dust, to minimise the inhalation of gamma- or alpha-emitting minerals.
Froneman says that "you get less radioactive exposure from a 200l drum of yellowcake than on an intercontinental flight".
He says government has indicated its desire to develop the nuclear industry in order to make the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor self-sufficient through down-stream processing. "It will be a positive development if done in the right way within the boundaries of the International Atomic Energy Agency."
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