Newcastle Range Uranium Deposit
Newcastle Range is a minor uranium desposit approximately 30 km south-east of the Maureen deposit in Queensland. Exploration undertaken by French company Minatome, a subsidiary of mining company Pechiney, in the early 1970s identified reserves of about 900 tonnes of U3O8. Only limited technical studies have been undertaken to date.
A Toronto-based Canadian company, Anaconda Uranium, recently purchased the Newcastle Range deposit (along with the Maureen deposit) on July 3, 1997, and is actively undertaking further exploration with a view to updating resource estimates, conducting a new feasibility study and work towards environmental studies for an application to mine and export the uranium.
Anaconda have also recently bought the Ben Lomond Uranium deposit near Townsville in Queensland on July 10, 1997. They are updating environmental studies from the rejected 1982 EIS with a view to establishing a new mine to export uranium.
Stay tuned......
As expected, Anaconda somehow failed to take account of the volatile nature of uranium politics in Australia. With the election of the Beattie Labour government to power in June 1998, they announced their minerals and energy policy, stating that 1 :
"Labor will not grant a mining lease for the purposes of mining uranium in Queensland. Nor will it permit the treatment or processing of uranium in the state."Anaconda were yet to issue a press release or respond in public at this time.
By September 1998, Anaconda had announced plans for a new uranium project in Portugal (the NISA Project, in joint venture with the Portugese government), and said it had not yet made final payment for the Maureen and Ben Lomond deposits. It was attempting to renegotiate the time schedules, but would not expand further.
However, in late October 1998, they finally announced that they have abandoned all plans to develop the Maureen and Ben Lomond uranium deposits. Interestingly though, both projects had been written off much earlier on May 31 and August 31, 1998, respectively - only two two weeks before and two months after the election of the Beattie Labour government (respectively). Presumably Cogema (Australia) will retain ownership of the Newcastle Range deposit, although Anaconda have not mentioned this deposit in their press releases.
WOOHOO!
Image - Anaconda Uranium Ltd.
Last Updated - November 1, 1998.
1 - UIC Weekly News July 17, 1998.
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