Herald Sun
Thursday 10/7/2008 Page: 71
THE Queensland and West Australian state governments remain firmly opposed to uranium mining, despite bipartisan support at a federal level. But junior uranium explorer Scimitar Resources isn't overly bothered. It's still allowed to look for yellow cake in WA with its exploration license -the state government just won't grant uranium mining licenses. Yesterday, the company reported its first significant find at its Yanrey project in WA's Carnarvon Basin.
Scimitar's managing director, Terry Topping, was clearly enthused about the discovery, which he says BusinessDaily elevates the company above the ranks of grassroots explorers. And he believes WA will eventually come around and allow uranium mining. Topping says it's crazy that Australia, which produces about 30 per cent of the world's uranium, is helping other countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions through nuclear energy, yet is still undecided about the alternative power source in its own backyard.
"States like Western Australia and Queensland really have to have a close look at whether they want to contribute to that or not," he says. "Do they really want to be part of a global solution or do they just want to look at what's going on in their own state?" Scimitar, which listed at the start of 2005, is about to start drilling in ernest at its NT and SA tenements. Altogether the company has 20,000sq km to explore, having secured the area three years ago when the spot price of uranium was about $US20 a pound.
The sector has had a nice little run since then with the spot price surging last year to $US138 a pound. It's back at about $US60 a pound but Topping, who paid a bargain $70,000 for Scimitar's current tenements, still kicks himself that he didn't shore up more ground. "If I'd have known that the price was going to go from $US20 to $US138I would have pegged 100,000 sq km," he says.
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