Yeelirre Uranium Deposit

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AUSTRALIA is on track to get its first major uranium mine in more than 20 years, with BHP Billiton planning a new $17 billion mine in WA.
The Australian newspaper reports that BHP Billiton plans to exploit the WA Liberal Government's removal of a longstanding ban by developing the Yeelirrie deposit in the heart of the state.

Just eight months after Premier Colin Barnett came to power promising to lift the Labor veto on uranium mining, BHP Billiton has submitted documents to the federal Environment Department signalling plans to start development at Yeelirrie in two years and to begin mining by 2014.

Under the mining giant's plans, Yeelirrie will increase Australian exports of uranium by 50per cent and, at its peak, overtake Rio Tinto's Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory as the nation's biggest.


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Demand for Australian uranium exports is forecast to continue growing strongly as major nations - led by China and India - embrace nuclear energy as a cleaner alternative to coal-fired power.

Development of the Yeelirrie operation, about 400km north of Kalgoorlie, is expected to run to hundreds of millions of dollars.

During construction, the mine will employ about 700 people, with about 300 needed during production.

The project would be the biggest in the uranium industry since federal Labor came to power in 2007, having overturned the party's long-standing ban on no new uranium mines.

There are only three operating mines in Australia: Ranger in the Northern Territory and Olympic Dam and the smaller Beverley mine in South Australia.

Production at a fourth mine, Honeymoon, in northern South Australia, is due to start next year.

Yeelirrie is Australia's second-biggest unmined uranium deposit, with at least 52,000 tonnes, after the mothballed Jabiluka in the Northern Territory.

BHP Billiton said it planned to produce an average of 5000 tonnes of uranium a year from the deposit for more than 30 years.

At current prices, that would translate into revenue of more than $US13 billion ($17billion) over its life.

The mine is yet to be approved by the board of BHP Billiton, which also owns Olympic Dam, where it is planning a massive expansion to 19,000 tonnes of uranium oxide a year.

Olympic Dam, which also produces copper and gold, was the last major uranium mine to be developed, starting production in 1988.

The documents lodged with the Environment Department are part of the environmental impact statement process, the first steps in obtaining government approval for the Yeelirrie project.

Processed radioactive uranium oxide is planned to be trucked to Kalgoorlie in drums then put on trains to Adelaide or Darwin - the only ports currently allowed to export uranium.

A spokeswoman for Mr Barnett said last night the state Government did not intend to ship uranium from its ports.

She said that even if volumes required it, uranium would never be allowed through residential ports such as Fremantle.

Reference for information:
www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/bhp-plans-bi...

May 2010 Status Article:

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said its Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia is being reassessed following the government’s plan to impose a 40 percent tax on resource profits.

“The project does remain under review following the release of that mining tax” proposal, Andrew Shook, general manager of Yeelirrie, told delegates at a conference in Perth today. “It will remain under review until we’re approved for execution. Our CEO Marius Kloppers has made the company’s position very clear in respect to that new mining tax.”

Kloppers said May 9 that BHP’s expansion plans, including its Olympic Dam uranium project, may be “very difficult” to approve because of the tax plan. The levy, to start in 2012, would stymie investment, spur companies to move offshore and threaten an industry that comprises 9 percent of the economy, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said on May 2 he plans to introduce a 40 percent tax on natural-resource profits starting 2012, raising an estimated $12 billion in the first two years.

Shares of BHP fell as much as 1.7 percent to A$38.34 in Sydney trading, and were at A$38.46 at 1:47 p.m. local time.

Production Target

BHP aims to begin production at Yeelirrie, the country’s second-largest undeveloped deposit of the nuclear fuel, by 2014, Shook said. The company is yet to announce a cost estimate for the project, he said.

“Yeelirrie is in pre-feasibility stage,” Shook said. “The next phase of our investment review process is definition, or feasibility. We plan to be heading into that phase toward the end of this year, possibly next year.”

Uranium will be transported from the mine through a port in South Australia or the Northern Territory, he said.

Yeelirrie, with an estimated 30-year lifespan, has a projected annual output of about 3,500 metric tons, near the bottom of an initial forecast range that had a top estimate of 5,000 tons, Shook said.

Western Australia has as much as 10 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves, valued at about A$40 billion ($36 billion), according to an estimate from the federal government in Canberra.

The long-term prospects for uranium are strong, with supplies of the nuclear fuel expected to go into deficit about 2015, Shook said. By 2030, global demand will outstrip supply by about 10,000 tons a year, he said.

Yeelirrie, discovered in 1972 in the remote and arid East Murchison region and wholly owned by BHP, would be an open-cut mine with a maximum depth of 25 meters (82 feet). The ore may be transported by road to Kalgoorlie and then by rail to an export harbor.

Reference for information:
www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-11/bhp-says-yeelirrie-ur...

Reference for location (Bonzle):
bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=260702&pg=1&m=0&cm...

References for other information:
www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/sci/UraniumWA.pdf