I guess Pakistan don't even need low quality uranium from Australia. They can happily keep it for them or sell it to India we don't care about it.....
Please dont talk rubbish you have no idea on the qauilty of Australia's uranium and why its in huge demand. yes everything from pakistan is top notch stuff provide me some sources to suggest and validate your agruments
Chapter three: Australia’s uranium resources, production and exploration
The chapter provides a detailed overview of Australia’s uranium resources, mine
production and exploration for uranium.
The Committee notes that Australia possesses 38 per cent of the world’s total
Identified Resources of uranium, recoverable at low cost (less than US$40 per
kilogram). According to company reports, Australia’s known uranium deposits
currently contain a total of over 2 million tonnes of uranium oxide in in-ground
resources. The in-situ value of this resource at spot market prices prevailing in
June 2006 was over A$270 billion.
xlviii
Some 75 per cent of Australia’s total Identified Resources of uranium are located
in South Australia, but significant deposits are also located in the Northern
Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. Seven of the world’s 20 largest uranium
deposits are in Australia—Olympic Dam (SA), Jabiluka (NT), Ranger (NT), Yeelirrie (WA), Valhalla (Queensland), Kintyre
(WA) and Beverley (SA).
In addition to its uranium resources, Australia also possesses the world’s largest
quantity of economically recoverable thorium resources—300 000 tonnes—more
than Canada and the US combined. Like uranium, thorium can be used as a
nuclear fuel, although the thorium fuel cycle is not yet commercialised.
In 2005, Australia achieved record national production of 11 222 tonnes of
uranium oxide from three operational mines—Ranger, Olympic Dam and
Beverley. Beverley is the world’s largest uranium mine employing the in-situ leach
(ISL) mining method and a fourth uranium mine (also employing the ISL method),
Honeymoon, is anticipated to commence production during 2008.
A proposal to expand Olympic Dam would see uranium production from the
mine treble to 15 000 tonnes of uranium oxide per year, which would make
Olympic Dam and its owners, BHP Billiton, by far the world’s largest producer.
The expanded mine would account for more than 20 per cent of world uranium
mine production and Australia would become the world’s largest supplier of
uranium with a doubling of national production.
Australia exported a record 12 360 tonnes of uranium oxide in 2005. This quantity
of uranium was sufficient for the annual fuel requirements of more than 50
reactors (each of 1 000 megawatt electrical capacity), producing some 380 t
erawatthours of electricity in total—some one and a half times Australia’s total electricity production.
The value of uranium exports reached a record high of $573 million in
2005. The outlook for further increases in production and export earnings is
positive.The increase in uranium price and the anticipated decline in secondary supplies
have stimulated a resurgence in exploration activity and expenditure in Australia.
In 2005, total exploration expenditure for uranium was $41.09 million, which was
almost a three-fold increase on 2004 expenditure.
While there has been a trend of increasing exploration expenditure since early
2003, there has been relatively little exploration for uranium over the past two
decades and Australia’s known uranium resources generally reflect exploration
efforts that took place 30 years ago. The size of Australia’s known uranium
resources significantly understates the potential resource base and there is great
potential for new and significant discoveries.
Xlix In its previous report, which addressed impediments to exploration, the
Committee accepted that future world-class uranium deposits are likely to be
located at greater depths than those hitherto discovered. It was concluded
that this will require large injections of exploration investment capital to overcome
the technical challenges of locating bedrock deposits. These observations reinforce
the need to ensure that juniors, which are generally efficient explorers, are
Appropriately assisted to discover Australia’s future world-class uranium and
other mineral deposits. The Committee is convinced of the merits of flow-through
share schemes and repeats the recommendation contained in its previous report
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/isr/uranium/report/front.pdf