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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (26270)	7/4/2005 2:22:51 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 362366

This ain't my deal, tho. I'm trying to be the dealbreaker. China courting Canadian uranium Surge in demand predicted if Beijing commits to building more nuclear plants By GEOFFREY YORK AND WENDY STUECK Monday, July 4, 2005 Updated at 6:10 AM EDT From Monday's Globe and Mail Beijing and Vancouver — Chinese officials and investors have been sizing up the Canadian uranium sector, in what may be the early stages of an attempt to nail down raw materials for a nuclear building boom. A Chinese delegation visited Cameco Corp. last fall, says Alice Wong, a spokeswoman for the Saskatoon-based uranium giant. And a separate four-person Chinese investment team recently dropped in to the Vancouver offices of CanAlaska Ventures Ltd., a junior exploration company hunting for uranium in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin. Then, last week, a group from the Chinese consulate in Calgary visited the Saskatoon offices of Cogema Resources Inc., the uranium-mining arm of the French nuclear energy company Areva Group. Analysts said they'd be surprised if China weren't actively scouting Canadian uranium prospects. China plans to invest $40-billion (U.S.) on nuclear generating capacity by 2020, which includes building as many as 30 new reactors to provide electricity for its booming economy. An official with Natural Resources Canada said China has been scouring the globe for uranium, talking to potential suppliers in Canada as well as Australia and Kazakhstan. China is interested both in buying the raw materials and participating in joint ventures, the official said. Ms. Wong said the Cameco visit was set up to provide information and contacts to the Chinese, and that official business was not on the agenda. "I would call them exploratory chit-chat rather than anything more specific," she said. CanAlaska vice-president Emil Fung said the group that visited his company wanted to know about land holdings and potential development projects. x Cogema spokesman Alun Richards said he gave a "generic presentation" on uranium in Saskatchewan to the Chinese group, who were also touring potash facilities in the province. Industry experts are forecasting a global uranium shortage of 45,000 tonnes over the next decade, according to a report last month by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, and the Chinese boom is one of the key reasons for the expected shortage. Canada is the world's biggest uranium producer, with an 11,600-tonne-a-year output, and has shipped uranium to China before as fuel in two Candu reactors. But Canada's biggest customer is the United States, which buys almost half of Canada's annual production. A recent report in the International Herald Tribune suggested uranium sales were on the agenda when Prime Minister Paul Martin visited Beijing to meet Chinese leaders in January. Canadian officials would not confirm or deny the report, but Foreign Affairs spokesman André Lemay said it would "seem feasible" that Mr. Martin might have discussed uranium sales with the Chinese leaders. "Given that the Chinese are looking to increase dramatically the number of nuclear stations, it would logically follow that they would be looking to Canada to increase their imports of uranium," Mr. Lemay said. "Canada would definitely like to supply the reactors and the uranium." One of the agreements signed between Canada and China in January, during Mr. Martin's visit to Beijing, was an agreement that included a commitment from the two countries to "work together" in the "uranium resources field." Chinese officials and Canadian diplomats in Beijing would not discuss whether any talks on uranium sales are currently active. The uranium market is dominated by a handful of large suppliers, and Cameco itself accounts for roughly 20 per cent of world production. Canada might have to move hastily to keep pace with new competition from Australia, the world's second-biggest uranium producer, which is planning a splashy entry into the Chinese uranium market in the near future. Australia currently does not sell uranium to China, but plans to negotiate a safeguard agreement within the next year to allow it to do so. The agreement would guarantee that Australian uranium is not used for Chinese nuclear weapons. Australian political leaders are forecasting that Chinese uranium demand could cause a doubling in Australia's global uranium sales from current annual exports of about $300-million — and the figure could double as early as 2010 if Chinese demand keeps growing. Uranium sales are a sensitive issue because of controversies over nuclear energy and the possible links to nuclear weapons. But federal officials say Canadian uranium sales to China would be fully legal, as the two countries signed a nuclear co-operation agreement when Canada sold two Candu reactors to China in the 1990s, and the pact would authorize future sales of Canadian uranium to China. As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, China has also accepted international safeguards on the use of nuclear energy, officials say. Over the past few years, China has invested in nickel in Cuba, copper in Chile and recently made a controversial bid for American oil giant Unocal Corp. China is, however, also known for shopping far and wide without necessarily reaching any deals. theglobeandmail.com