Australia's Uranium 2009: Exploration, Resources and Production in an International Context  

Authors / CoAuthors

McKay, A.D. | Lambert, I.B. | Carson, L.

Abstract

Uranium exploration expenditure in Australia has increased progressively since 2003 mainly because of the significant increases in spot market uranium prices in recent years. In 2007-08, uranium exploration expenditure increased to a record level of $231.6 million , which is approximately double the 2006-07 expenditure ($111.4 million). The majority of expenditure was in South Australia (51%), followed by the Northern Territory (21%), Queensland (16%) and Western Australia (12%). Uranium exploration expenditure in the 2008 September quarter ($56.7 million) was above the 2007 September quarter ($50 million). However the difference is the expenditure trend from the June quarter to the September quarter, in 2007 expenditure grew by $6.7 million whereas in 2008 expenditure reduced by $6.0 million. This reduction may reflect that the current global economic crisis is affecting the level of uranium exploration spending. Geoscience Australia prepares annual estimates of Australia's uranium resources within categories used for international reporting by the Uranium Group (a joint initiative of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency). The estimates are for resources of recoverable uranium after losses due to mining and milling have been deducted. As of December 2008, Australia's Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR) recoverable at costs of <US$80/kg U were estimated to be 1,111,000 t U. This represents an increase of 12% over the estimates for the previous year, mainly due to large increase in both reserves and resource estimates for Olympic Dam deposit (South Australia) and transfer of resources from Inferred in RAR. This means Australia's share of the world's total RAR of uranium recoverable at <US$80/kg U has increased to about 37% . <truncated>

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nonGeographicDataset

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68590

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• External PublicationConference Paper

( Theme )

• geoscience

( Theme )

• mineral exploration

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

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2009-01-01T00:00:00

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geoscientificInformation

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