Australia Will Allow Exports of Uranium to Russia

www.businessweek.com/
April 22, 2010

April 23 (Bloomberg) - - Australia, the world's third-largest uranium producer behind Kazakhstan and Canada, will ratify a nuclear agreement allowing exports to Russia for energy purposes, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said. "This will enable Australian uranium to be exported to the Russian Federation for civil, peaceful nuclear purposes," Smith said, according to an e-mailed transcript of a news conference yesterday in Moscow with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The agreement will strengthen cooperation on safeguards to protect exports as Australia and Russia "both stand firmly against terrorism and violent extremism," Smith said.

Australia, which does not generate any nuclear power, has the world's biggest known uranium reserves, according to estimates from the World Nuclear Association. While exports to Russia will go ahead, Australia doesn't allow uranium to be sent to India for energy use because the Asian country hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Russia hopes ratification of "agreements on the peaceful use of nuclear energy" will be completed "soon," Lavrov said. Australia and Russia signed up to President Barack Obama's plan to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years outlined at a two-day summit in Washington earlier this month that involved 47 countries. "Together with other colleagues we will work in such a way that the conference on non-proliferation in May will be concluded with important results," Lavrov said, referring to the NPT Review Conference in New York from May 3-28.

Deep Reserves
As much as 10 % of Australia's uranium is found in the state of Western Australia and is valued at about A$40 billion ($37 billion), according to a government estimate. BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia contains the world's biggest uranium deposit.

Energy Resources of Australia Ltd., a uranium producer controlled by Rio Tinto Group, provides about a 10th of the world's mined uranium. It operates the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory and sells uranium to utilities in Asia, Europe and North America. It began shipments to China in 2008. The Premier of Western Australia Colin Barnett lifted a ban on new mining of uranium, which is processed into nuclear fuel, when his Liberal party won office in September 2008.