Australia\u2019s uranium deposits have billion-dollar potential for the national economy, a mining group chief\u00a0says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister on Thursday confirmed Australia would export uranium for use in India’s nuclear power program.\u00a0\u00a0India is striving to reach a target of 100 gigawatts of nuclear capacity within the next 20 years.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce\u00a0told Sky News on\u00a0Friday\u00a0the uranium market was expanding at a rate of knots.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe uranium market is growing quickly and demand for uranium is going up exponentially as countries try and meet their clean energy and energy needs,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means going into nuclear energy, countries like India, the UK, all\u00a0have got\u00a0major expanses of nuclear facilities and that means they need a safe and reliable supply of uranium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re\u00a0looking to nations like Australia to help them meet those needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
He advocated for a removal of policies restricting mining so explored projects could be developed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a billion-dollar industry,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Western Australia, by removing that ban and developing the projects we have in Western Australia could turn on a\u00a0billion-dollar\u00a0export industry within the next five to six years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s also true of Queensland. And remember, we’re competing not just with other states in Australia, like South Australia, NT, we’re also competing with other nations who are looking to fill that gap.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said there was a lot of \u201cideology\u201d surrounding nuclear\u00a0energy, but\u00a0called for an open discussion on a clean energy future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a long (history of) ideology around these issues in relation to uranium going to nuclear power, but also into nuclear weapons, and so, although time has marched on and many things have changed, and we think about our clean energy future, nuclear is a path that many nations, in fact most of the world\u2019s developed nations, are taking as a way of reducing their emissions,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia\u2019s still stuck back 30 or 40 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking following the deal on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Australia\u2019s technology, capital and resources would help accelerate his nation\u2019s transition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We have historic opportunities to cooperate in this field,” Modi said, as he urged Australia’s business community to invest long-term in\u00a0India’s road, port,\u00a0rail\u00a0and urban infrastructure projects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though both nations agreed to a nuclear cooperation pact in 2014,\u00a0uranium\u00a0exports have been limited over concerns they could end up in\u00a0India’s nuclear weapons program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Australia and India are close partners and even closer friends,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms\u00a0Wong earlier on Sky News defended Labor\u2019s decision to exclude\u00a0nuclear from\u00a0energy discussions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know\u00a0nuclear\u00a0ultimately will\u00a0cost more, will cost taxpayers. Taxpayers will\u00a0be required\u00a0to fund it for\u00a0a very long\u00a0time,\u00a0and it\u00a0won’t\u00a0be\u00a0feasible\u00a0or operational or commercially\u00a0viable\u00a0for some time,\u201d\u00a0she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She noted former opposition leader Peter Dutton\u2019s failed election run in 2025, with nuclear the signature feature of his energy plan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralians made their view\u00a0pretty clear\u00a0about the nuclear energy plan that was going to cost them money,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve\u00a0got a lot more work to do on energy. We know that and we are doing it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked whether Labor would lift the moratorium and \u201clet the market decide\u201d,\u00a0Ms\u00a0Wong said the market had not\u00a0indicated\u00a0any desire to chase\u00a0nuclear.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0a bit like people saying\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a lot of ideology in this, but\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0also a lot of ideology here. The market has also not wanted to invest in coal-fired power, these\u00a0decisions are being made by the private sector,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s uranium deposits have billion-dollar potential for the national economy, a mining group chief\u00a0says.\u00a0\u00a0 The Prime Minister on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,11131,2908,35427,28809,35426],"class_list":["post-48422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-india","tag-mining","tag-modi","tag-uranium","tag-warren-pearce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}