1 Australian Atomic Energy Commission (AAEC)
(Now Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation - ANSTO)
See also - Info on ANSTO's Lucas Heights "Research" Reactor. It operates the Federal Australian Government's uranium stockpile at Lucas Heights, New South Wales.
Until ERA was formed in September 1980, AAEC was one of the owners of the Ranger uranium mine. At that point, the AAEC's interest - along with those of the Australian government, EZ Industries (see EZ Electrolytic Zinc), and Peko Wallsend was transferred to ERA.
In the mid 1970s, AAEC bailed out the Mary Kathleen mine, and was granted a minority ownership; Mary Kathleen was closed in late 1982.
AAEC also helped out Queensland Mines, when delay in opening the Nabarlek mine threatened to jeopardise Japanese contracts for nearly 200 tons. Queensland Mines paid the AAEC for the uranium loan - and the AAEC repaid it when Nabarlek uranium began to be shipped in 1981 (1).
The AAEC in 1976 announced uranium occurrences at its Austatom uranium prospect, 28km west of the Jabiluka and Ranger mines in the Northern Territory. Although further drilling occurred in 1977, no results were announced (2).
The AAEC also held 10.7% of the Ngalia Basin Exploration JV along with CPM, Urangesellschaft, and Agip Nucleare, which in 1981 was sold to Cocks Eldorado, SC Ex, and Offshore Oil (2).
In 1986, the AAEC was formally replaced by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), whose brief is not only to build on the AAEC's commitment to nuclear power but to expand the organisation into non-nuclear fields as well (3).
A year later, after a fire broke out at Lucas Heights destroying a laboratory cell used for processing isotopes (4), it looked as if ANSTO would be co-operating with the Chinese regime on a project by which the Asian country would take West German nuclear waste, to be buried in Synroc (synthetic rock) developed in Australia (5).
SOURCE: "The Gulliver File - Mines, people and land: a global battleground" by Roger Moody.
Published in 1992 by Minewatch, 218 Liverpool Road, London Nl ILE, UK, and WISE-Glen Aplin, Po Box 87, Glen Aplin Q 4381, Australia.
Distribution: Sales to bookshops: Pluto Press, 345 Archway Road, London N 6 5AA, UK. Sales to the mining industry and libraries: Uitgeverij Jan van Arkel, A. Numankade 17, 357t KP Utrecht, the Netherlands.
***Note to electronic texts: selections from Minewatch are available to researchers on corporate and mining affairs. However, the detailed REFERENCES and CHARTS in the print version are not available in electronic form. You are encouraged to order the complete book from the sources above.***
All rights reserved. © Minewatch, 1992.
Page last updated December 6, 1997.
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