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Uranium: Natural Energy 5 URANIUM Natural Energy URANIUM Natural Energy Contents 05 Uranium: Australia’s next billion dollar export industry 06 High density energy 08 Australia’s rich endowment 12 Australia: A secure and reliable supplier 19 The opportunity for Australia 22 Creating opportunities: education and training partnerships 24 Releasing uranium’s energy 30 Uranium’s place in nuclear medicine 32 The safe production of uranium 36 Connecting cultures: Kintyre Project Indigenous Land Use Agreement 39 Environmental protection 42 World leading environmental science: Arid Recovery 44 Dispelling uranium myths $622m $1.1b EARNINGS FORECAST BREE forecast value Australian uranium export of Australia’s uranium earnings in 2013-14 exports in 2018-19 5710 t 8900t PRODUCTION FORECAST BREE forecast for Australia’s production Australian uranium of uranium in 2013-14 production in 2018-19 32% 437 RESOURCES REACTORS Australia has 32 per cent Operable nuclear power of global uranium resources – reactors in the world the largest in the world NEW WORLD 11 % 70 REACTORS The number of new PRODUCTION nuclear reactors Australia is the world’s under construction 3rd biggest producer PLANNED 4200 487REACTORS EMPLOYED The number of planned or proposed new nuclear reactors Many in remote areas Underground mining, Olympic Dam, South Australia (BHP Billiton) Uranium: Natural Energy 5 URANIUM: AUSTRALIA’S NEXT BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics AUSTRALIA IS ENDOWED (BREE) forecasts that uranium will be a billion dollar WITH THE WORLD’S LARGEST Australian export industry by 2018-192, fuelled by the world’s growing demand for energy and rising interest RESOURCES OF URANIUM in nuclear energy as a low emissions energy source. BREE predicts that the combination of nuclear energy’s AND IS THE WORLD’S THIRD ability to provide reliable base load power, relatively BIGGEST EXPORTER.1 cheap operating costs and low carbon emissions will see ‘substantial expansion in nuclear power generating capacity, particularly in emerging economies’.3 Beyond energy production, uranium will continue to support the use of nuclear technology in medicine for life saving diagnosis and treatment. Australia is well placed to capitalise on this demand growth and expand its role as a secure, reliable and sustainable uranium producer. While it possesses approximately a third of the world’s low-cost uranium, Australia has claimed only 11 per cent of the world uranium market.4 A substantial opportunity awaits. 6 Minerals Council of Australia HIGH DENSITY ENERGY Uranium is mildly radioactive in its natural form and URANIUM IS THE is present in most rocks as well as in rivers, streams HEAVIEST NATURALLY and oceans. It is about as common as tin and is more abundant than gold, silver or mercury.5 OCCURRING METAL IN Generally speaking, uranium mining is no different to THE EARTH’S CRUST. other mining. Uranium ore is mined in open cut or underground operations (sometimes with other metals such as gold and copper) or through in-situ recovery from boreholes drilled into the deposit. It is processed into uranium oxide (U3O8). The energy content of uranium oxide6 drum of 1uranium oxide Uranium: Natural Energy 7 The annual output of the world’s largest solar farm or the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm can come from approximately just two shipping containers of uranium oxide.7 Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (SEGS) Macarthur Wind Farm Location: Mojave Desert, California Location: Victoria, Australia Footprint: 3,500 acres Footprint: 5,500 acres Build cost: $2.2 billion Build cost: $1 billion Capacity: 392 MW Capacity: 420MW (140 x 3MW turbines) Uranium oxide has a uranium content of more than The release of energy from splitting a uranium atom 80 per cent. It is sometimes referred to as yellowcake, is 2 million times greater than breaking the carbon- though it is usually khaki in colour. This is the form in hydrogen bond in molecules of wood, coal or oil.9 which Australia exports its uranium. In 2012-13, Australia exported 8,391 tonnes of Uranium has extremely high energy density meaning a uranium oxide. This amount of uranium generated small amount of uranium can generate a large amount the same amount of electricity as Australia’s total annual of energy. One kilogram of uranium produces the same electricity production of 253TWh, and in energy units, energy as 11 tonnes of coal or 8,500 m3 of natural gas.8 was more than a quarter of Australia’s exported energy. Wind has low energy density – less than 1/10th that of wood. Wood has half the density of coal. Coal has half the density of octane. av Australian households 1,8 3 5 for one year AUSTRALIA’S RICH ENDOWMENT AUSTRALIA HAS 90 KNOWN URANIUM DEPOSITS AND THE WORLD’S LARGEST URANIUM RESOURCE. Australia’s uranium resource accounts for 32 per cent • The World Heritage Committee added the (1,174 kt) of global Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR).10 Koongarra Project Area to the Kakadu World South Australia hosts 80 per cent of Australia’s Heritage Area in 2011 and the Australian resources. The Northern Territory has 10 per cent, Government incorporated the deposit into Western Australia 6 per cent, Queensland 3 per cent Kakadu National Park in 2013.12 and New South Wales 1 per cent. Nevertheless, Australia’s uranium resources have Around 9 per cent of Australia’s economic demonstrated increased in recent decades, mainly as a result of resources of uranium are inaccessible for mining: ongoing drilling and evaluation of known deposits • The Jabiluka deposit is under a long-term care and including Olympic Dam, Ranger 3 Deeps, the maintenance agreement and will not be mined Beverley-Four Mile deposits, and deposits at Wiluna, without agreement from the Traditional Owners Yeelirrie, Carnarvon and Westmoreland. Ranger uranium mine, Northern Territory (Energy Resources of Australia) CHART 1 World Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR) Source: Joint report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency11 Other 241.1 Ukraine 84.8 Mongolia 108.1 China 120 Brazil 155.1 South Africa 175.3 United States 207.4 Russian Federation 216.5 Namibia 248.2 Kazakhstan 285.6 Niger 325 Canada 357.5 Australia 1,17 4 Quantity (kt) 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 Note: Recoverable resources as of 1 January 2013, tonnes U RAR < USD 130/kgU (i.e. approx. US$59/lbU). 10 Minerals Council of Australia CHART 2 Uranium resource range (tonnes U) Total identified resources (RAR + Inferred) Source: Geoscience Australia Jabiluka DARWIN Ranger Koongarra 0 750 km Huarabagoo Junnagunna Oobagooma Red Tree Maureen Skal Valhalla Ben Lomond E1 Bigrlyi Andersons Lode Kintyre Nolans Bone Manyingee Cappers Angela Napperby Carley Bore Lake Way Hillview Nowthanna Four Mile East Thatcher Soak Anketell Four Mile West Olympic Dam Beverley BRISBANE Yeelirrie Mulga Rock Warrior Double 8 Oban Carrapateena Honeymoon Crocker Well PERTH Blackbush Toongi SYDNEY ADELAIDE CANBERRA 1,500 – 3,000 (t) 50,000 – 1,000,000 (t) MELBOURNE 3,000 – 10,000 (t) >1,000,000 (t) 10,000 – 50,000 (t) HOBART Uranium resources by state 80% 10 % 6% 3% 1% Queensland South Australia New South Wales Northern Territory Western Australia Western Uranium: Natural Energy CHART 3 $m 250 Uranium exploration expenditure in Australia 200 Exploration expenditure $m (LHS) Share of uranium in total exploration expenditure (RHS) 150 100 50 0 1990 1991 1992 Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 1993 11 Exploration 1994 Uranium exploration in Australia has been focused 1995 in four main areas: 1996 • 1997 South Australia’s Gawler Craton/Stuart Shelf and Frome Embayment 1998 • Western Australia’s Paterson Province, North 1999 Yilgarn and the Carnarvon and Canning Basins • 2000 Northern Territory’s Pine Creek and Arnhem % Land regions 2001 • 10 Queensland’s Mt Isa and Gulf of Carpentaria 2002 regions. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003 9 uranium exploration expenditure in Australia was 2004 8 $52.3 million in 2013.13 2005 7 2006 6 2007 2008 5 14 The potential for new uranium discoveries in 2009 4 Australia is high. Geoscience Australia and the Bureau 2010 of Resources and Energy Economics reported in the 3 most recent 2011 2 2012 New pre-competitive data released by Geoscience Australia – notably the radiometric 2013 1 map of Australia andAustralian regional electromagnetic Energy Resource Assessment survey data – are providing a further stimulus to 0 uranium exploration and discovery. 15 : 12 Minerals Council of Australia AUSTRALIA: A SECURE AND RELIABLE SUPPLIER AUSTRALIA HAS MINED URANIUM FOR THE PAST 70 YEARS. In the 1930s uranium was a by-product of radium mining for medical purposes at Radium Hill and Mount Painter in South Australia. In the period from the 1950s to early 1970s, uranium was mined primarily at Radium Hill, Mary Kathleen (Queensland), Rum Jungle (Northern Territory) and two sites in the South Alligator Valley (Northern Territory). They operated in accordance with the standards of the day either until ore reserves were exhausted or contracts completed. In 1973, Australia ratified the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Australia supplies uranium solely for peaceful purposes such as civil nuclear power and nuclear medicine. The development of civil nuclear power internationally stimulated a wave of activity and accelerating energy demand saw Australia become the world’s second largest uranium producer from the mid-1990s to 2007. Production reached an all-time peak of 10,064 tonnes in 2004-05. Although eclipsed by the rapid development
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