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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

Quebec’s Plan Nord project snubs uranium mining in the province – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – July 27, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

MONTREAL — Quebec is moving steadfastly ahead on its Plan Nord project to open up the vast resource-rich northern reaches of the province. But there is one activity notably absent from the to-do list in the 20-year mining-forestry-energy action plan: uranium mining.

Despite progress made in recent years polishing Quebec’s image as an unwelcoming place for investment in mining ventures, uranium exploration and development continue to be blocked by the government over environmental, health and social concerns.

Quebec uranium mining company Strateco Resources Inc. – once promoted as a high-profile player in a previous, more ambitious incarnation of the Plan Nord – is caught in the middle of a seemingly endless conflict over the right to mine the yellow mineral.

The latest blow to Strateco’s nearly decade-long effort to launch the province’s first uranium mine – in Northern Quebec – is a recommendation from the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) agency that it would be premature at this time to authorize development of a uranium industry.

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In Congo, silence surrounds forgotten mine that fuelled first atom bombs – by Tom Zoellner (AlJazeera America – July 23,2015)

http://america.aljazeera.com/

The US sourced uranium for the weapons used on Japan from Shinkolobwe; though the site is closed, locals mine illegally

One of the manifest ironies of the nuclear age is just how primitive it all is. A complicated war was brought to an end within a week by a pair of indiscriminate hammer blows. The logic behind the next 45 years of Cold War military strategy — hit us and we both die — was as simplistic as it was problematic. And driving everything was a bomb fashioned out of dirt.

A particular kind of dirt, of course, and one that required a lavish industrial process before it could be made into a fissile device. That dirt is uranium, and it lies all around the world in abundant quantities. A place where it was concentrated to levels of freakish purity is now just a curious footnote of the nuclear age, but at one time, it was treated with intense secrecy.

Shinkolobwe was a small settlement in the Katanga province of what was then the Belgian Congo. Its name refers to a particular kind of boiled apple that would leave a burn if it was squeezed. In 1915 a prospector, Robert Rich Sharp, was looking for geological signs of copper and heard stories about people rubbing a particular kind of colorful mud on their skin. He thought it might be copper, but what he found on the top of a short hill was uranium, which can oxidize with other minerals in a variety of bright colors.

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Pictures from the atomic age: The AGO’s Camera Atomica exhibit is oddly poignant – by David Berry (National Post – July 21, 2015)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The first official image in Camera Atomica is an x-ray; the first x-ray, actually, taken by physicist Wilhelm Rontgen, of his wife’s hand (her wedding ring is still visible as a rather large lump).

The discovery of this miraculous technology — it “makes the invisible visible” curator John O’Brian proudly proclaims — was an accident. But it was also our first, fumbling step into the atomic age, our first grasp of a power that would come to (quite literally) rewrite the DNA of the human experience.

“When Rontgen’s wife saw it, she was shocked. She said, ‘I’ve seen my own death,’” O’Brian explains, pointing to the image and pausing for dramatic effect. “That sort of predicted some of the worst sides of it. But this shows you there’s really a fatal interdependence between the camera and nuclear fission.”

O’Brian’s exhibit gathers some of the most powerful photographic images of the last 120 years of nuclear power — not, he says, to get us to contemplate our own deaths, but to bring attention back to an issue that’s still humming in the background of our everyday life.

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India Looks to Central Asia for Uranium Mining – by John C. K. Daly (Silk Road Reporters – July 21, 2015)

http://www.silkroadreporters.com/

While attending back-to-back BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits in Ufa, Russia on July 8-10, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took the time to visit Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The significance of the visit is that ever since the former Soviet Central Asia states became independent in 1991, no Indian Prime Minister has visited all five Central Asian countries simultaneously.

Not surprisingly, the visits focused on increasing bilateral trade, with energy being a significant component of the talks. But while significant hydrocarbon exports remain in the future due to costs and infrastructure development, Modi scored significant successes in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan over a portable “cash and carry” energy source – uranium.

In Astana Modi signed five agreements covering defense, railways and uranium supplies. After talks with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev Modi said, “We are pleased to have a much larger second contract for purchase of uranium with Kazakhstan and expanding our civil nuclear cooperation. Kazakhstan is our biggest economic partner in the region. We will work together to take economic ties to a new level.” The agreement provides for Kazakhstan’s state-owned NAC Kazatomprom nuclear company to deliver 5,000 tons of uranium between 2015 and 2019.

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Quebec isn’t ready for uranium development: report – by Sarah Rogers (Nunatsiaq News – July 20, 2015)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

Province-wide commission finds lack of reliable information, lack of social acceptability

A new report says it would be “premature” to allow the uranium sector to develop in Quebec, given the lack of both information and social acceptance on the issue.

The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), Quebec’s environmental impact review board, released its report on the future of the uranium industry July 17, following a year-long, province-wide commission.

And while the commission found the uranium mining sector has seen major progress in technology and waste management, it found that there are too many unanswered questions about the industry.

The 600-page report also noted significant gaps in scientific knowledge about the impacts of uranium mining on the environment and public health. “Given this situation, the participants at the hearings were almost unanimous in their rejection of uranium sector development,” the French-language report said.

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Officials say mining sector in Saskatchewan being affected by wildfires – by Kurtis Doering (The Prince George Citizen – July 15, 2015)

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/

CKOM/The Canadian Press – SASKATOON – As hundreds of wildfires tear through northern Saskatchewan, the province’s mining sector is being affected in more ways than one.

Claude Resources had to suspend operations at its Seabee gold mine as one of the over 100 fires came within eight kilometres of the site. Most of the roughly 355 employees were removed, with some essential personnel remaining behind.

Mining giants Cameco and Areva have had to stop shipping uranium from their northern operations as highways and airstrips are periodically closed by smoke and flame.

“It’s a bit of a juggling act, but we’re managing to get through it,” said Cameco spokesman Gord Struthers.

Though fire has not directly threatened Cameco’s mines, northern residents make up roughly half of the company’s workforce. Struthers said they have tried to remain flexible in the face of widespread evacuations.

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Iran Nuclear Deal Is Reached With World Powers – by David E. Sanger and Michael R. Gordon (New York Times – July 14, 2015)

http://www.nytimes.com/

VIENNA — Iran and a group of six nations led by the United States said they had reached a historic accord on Tuesday to significantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions.

The deal culminates 20 months of negotiations on an agreement that President Obama had long sought as the biggest diplomatic achievement of his presidency. Whether it portends a new relationship between the United States and Iran — after decades of coups, hostage-taking, terrorism and sanctions — remains a bigger question.

President Obama, in an early morning appearance at the White House that was broadcast live in Iran, began what promised to be an arduous effort to sell the deal to Congress and the American public, saying the agreement was “not built on trust, it is built on verification.”

ut Mr. Obama made it abundantly clear that he would fight to preserve the deal in its entirety, saying, “I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.”

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[Saskatchewan] A uranium mid-cap – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – July 8, 2015)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Denison, Fission argue a merger of equals means a unique position as uranium mid-cap.

Fission Uranium and Denison Mines announced a merger of equals Monday that, if consummated, combines a few, key high-grade assets in a premier uranium mining region of the world in terms of grade. In selling the marriage of two key uranium juniors focused on the Athabasca Basin, the sales pitch was largely focused on the benefit of being a bigger company in a sour mining market.

Fission has emerged in recent years with an important uranium discovery, called Triple R, and first resource that catapulted its prospects as a uranium developer. It has gone from a virtual unknown, chasing a U3O8-mineralized boulder train, to one of the relatively rare junior explorers with a market capitalization counted in the hundreds of millions (~C$400m).

That has helped it catch up to and near equal Denison, a Lundin Group company that has a more established position in the Athabasca Basin. Denison’s assets include another, deeper, but uber grade uranium deposit (60% Wheeler project) and a 22.5% stake in a sizeable uranium toll mill operated by Areva, which processes ore from Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine.

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NEWS RELEASE: Denison and Fission Announce Transaction to Create Leading Diversified Uranium Company

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – July 6, 2015) – Denison Mines Corp. (TSX:DML)(NYSE MKT:DNN) (“Denison”) and Fission Uranium Corp. (TSX:FCU)(OTCQX:FCUUF)(FRANKFURT:2FU) (“Fission”) are pleased to announce the execution of a Binding Letter Agreement (the “Binding Agreement”) to combine their respective businesses (the “Transaction”). The Transaction creates a leading Canadian focused diversified uranium company – combining high quality assets and the management teams of two highly respected companies. Headlining the asset portfolio of the combined company will be two world class uranium exploration and development projects: Fission’s 100% owned Patterson Lake South Project, and Denison’s 60% owned Wheeler River Project, both located in the prolific Athabasca Basin, in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada.

Subject to the terms set out in the Binding Agreement, Fission common shareholders will receive 1.26 common shares of Denison for each common share of Fission held plus $0.0001 per share in cash. Upon completion of the Transaction, the combined company, to be named “Denison Energy Corp.”, will be approximately 50% owned by each of Denison’s and Fission’s existing shareholders on a fully-diluted in-the-money basis.

The market capitalization of Denison and Fission on a combined basis is anticipated to be approximately CAD$900 million. Based on the 30 day volume weighted average price of Denison’s shares on the TSX of CAD$0.99 as at July 3, 2015, the offer implies a price per Fission common share of CAD$1.25 and represents a premium of approximately 18% to the 30 day volume weighted average price of Fission’s shares on the TSX of CAD$1.06 as at July 3, 2015.

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Tanzania: Alert to End Uranium Mining, Nuclear Weapons – by Deus Ngowi (All Africa.com – July 2, 2015)

http://allafrica.com/

Moshi — PEACE and environmental activists from around the world are gathering here in a quest to persuade African governments to slap a ban on uranium mining and nuclear weapons as they are twin threats.

Under the K-Project for Peace, the activists, having gone through scientific studies, have formed an opinion that it is in everybody’s best interest that uranium should remain in the ground, as its extraction is in every way hazardous.

K-Project for Peace started as an appeal by Ms Racheal Chagonja, an environmental and peace activist from Tanzania, when she saw the devastating effects of uranium mining (U-Mining) to the environment, health, and rights of indigenous people in Niger and Mali.

She did not want to see this happen to her country Tanzania, a potential future U-Mining country, and sensed the urgency to halt U-Mining in active sites and stop potential future UMining sites in other African countries Ms Chagonja reached out to like-minded civil society organisations in Africa to join her and the project has since grown from an appeal to an international campaign led by young African activists.

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Arizona Strip region has yielded uranium ore for decades – by William Ascarza (Arizona Daily Star – June 29, 2015)

http://tucson.com/news/

One of the more remote historical uranium mining localities in Arizona is Hack Canyon, 37 miles southwest of Fredonia in Mohave County.

Sitting in the Arizona Strip — which is the area of the state that lies north of the Colorado River — the area covers roughly 1,000 square miles in the northwest portion of the state, and is the last hard-rock uranium producer in the U.S.

The canyon was reportedly named after Haskell Jolly, who was known to locals as “Hack,” and owned a nearby spring and ranch. Active copper mining at the site occurred during World War I, and included the use of a tramway for ore transport down the canyon wall.

By 1948, the Hack Canyon Uranium Mine consisted of 14 unpatented claims owned by G.C. Harwood from Phoenix and three partners, including A.E. “Blondie” Jenson and Clair Pearson of Fredonia and Ray Pointer of Safford, who comprised the Canyon Copper Co.

Having sent several shipments of copper ore to smelters toward the end of World War II, commercial uranium potential was soon afterward discovered through use of fluorescent lamps revealing fluorescence of radioactive minerals, including uraninite and zippeite found in sandstone and shale.

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GLOBE EDITORIAL: It’s not as if it’s the Iranians – let Australians mine our uranium (Globe and Mail – June 25, 2015)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

There’s no reason at all to object to the decision of Greg Rickford, the Minister of Natural Resources, to allow an Australian company, Paladin Energy Ltd., to develop a uranium mine in Newfoundland and Labrador, 140 kilometres northeast of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, with Australians holding the majority of the shares.

On the contrary, the odd thing is that Paladin had to seek permission to do so, as a foreign corporation – over and above the similarly unnecessary process of the foreign investment review under the Investment Canada Act, with its mysterious “net benefit” criterion. In the rejected takeover by BHP Billiton of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan in 2010, Ottawa even more mysteriously declared Potash to be a “strategic asset,” not a term used in the ICA.

The federal government has had a “non-resident ownership policy in the uranium mining sector” since 1987. The policy allows for an exemption from the requirement of at least 51-per-cent Canadian ownership if there aren’t enough Canadians who want to build the prospective uranium mine in question.

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Australia’s Paladin Energy Ltd wins historic approval to operate Canadian uranium mine – by Peter Koven (National Post – June 23, 2015)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Paladin Energy Ltd. has achieved a first for an Australian company: It has won the right to operate a uranium mine in Canada.

The approval from Ottawa, announced Monday by the company, is a signal that Canada welcomes more foreign investment in its uranium industry. And that has positive implications for a struggling sector that could really use some outside capital.

“This is an historic decision that could have implications for all uranium companies and projects in Canada,” Raymond James analyst David Sadowski said in a note.

Paladin said the federal government approved its request to be the majority owner and operator of the Michelin uranium mine in Labrador. The company hopes to begin production when the sputtering uranium market rebounds.

This approval was unique because Canada has a Non-Resident Ownership Policy (NROP) governing its uranium sector.

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Rio Tinto uranium shutdown creates demand urgency – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – June 15, 2015)

http://www.mineweb.com/

What braking on the Ranger 3 Deeps project means for supply.

HALIFAX, NV – The Ranger 3 Deeps uranium project in Northern Australia, mostly owned by Rio Tinto, is dead, or at least in deep sleep for now. And the shelving of Ranger 3 – with a feasibility study no longer going ahead – has important implications for uranium supply, and presumably uranium prices.

This was the conclusion of analysts David Talbot and Zain Nathoo, of Dundee Securities, in a recent note dissecting the impact of Energy Resources decision to halt progress on developing the underground project, which would have extended existing operations at the Ranger uranium mine (now processing stockpiles).

The uranium market is not that large, so decisions like these can quickly have profound effects on supply. In this case we have, as Talbot notes, what could have become – if it reached production – the world’s third largest uranium mine after McArthur River and Cigar Lake, producing some 9 million pounds uranium a year.

Talbot sees the withdrawal of Ranger 3 Deeps as creating urgency for uranium buyers to start looking at securing long term supply contracts.

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UPDATE 2-Rescued Areva faces uncertain future as nuclear fuel group – by Geert De Clercq(Reuters U.K. – June 4, 2015)

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – France’s Areva faces an uncertain future as a specialised nuclear fuel supplier, as a state rescue moves its core nuclear reactor activities to its utility customer EDF.

Shares in the state-owned firm briefly rose almost 6 percent on Thursday after the government said late on Wednesday it would recapitalise Areva and approved EDF’s plan to take over Areva’s reactor unit.

The government plan unwinds Areva’s much-vaunted model of an integrated nuclear group that mines and enriches uranium, produces nuclear fuel, builds reactors and recycles spent fuel.

Created fifteen years ago from the nuclear fuel group Cogema and reactor builder Framatome, Areva had ambitions to sell as many as 16 of its massive EPR reactors to energy-hungry developing countries.

But it has not sold a reactor since 2007 and the four it did sell have been plagued by delays and cost overruns. More than two decades after it was designed, not a single EPR is in operation today.

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