Kalgoorlie As we though it seems that the recent rapid decline in nickel’s LME stockpile was caused by some producers holding back production which they have now released to the market.
In the last weeks of December, 45,000 tons was added to the LME stockpile.
The stockpile is once again on the way down but at a more sustainable rate of about 6000 tons per month on average over the last six months.
A volatile market is not in our best interests as it makes the future less predictable so a steady reduction in the stockpile is best for the Eastern Goldfields as it will allow our nickel producers to plan a return to full production in an orderly manner.
The sleeping giant in our back yard is Uranium.
The Kalgoorlie Miner last month published a story on the commencement of mining works at Mulga Hill east of Kalgoorlie Boulder and others like Toro Energy are keen to get their projects around Wiluna up and running.
Our region holds a significant percentage of the world’s Uranium deposits and hosts some of the more geologically stable ground on the globe so is in an ideal position to develop a major nuclear industry around mining and safe storage of waste, giving us fantastic opportunities to develop industries other than pure mining and mining services to secure the region’s long term future.
Following the Paris climate change accord there was a call to the anti-uranium lobby to get out of the way of the uranium industry to facilitate the orderly development of nuclear energy globally as the writing is on the wall for the phasing out of coal as a fuel source for power generation.
Opposition to uranium mining and nuclear power comes from the fear mongering prevalent in the anti-nuclear weapons debate that raged in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.
The lobbyists have been using fear as their main motivator ever since.
We hear nothing of the thousands of lives lost every year ion coal mining around the World and yet safety is the purported big risk in the nuclear power industry!
The technology of nuclear power and the safety and security of modern plants is infinitely more advanced today than when many of the existing nuclear power stations were built and yet even with the older technology there have been relatively few incidents surrounding these power stations.
If the World is serious about decreasing the release of greenhouse gasses it has to replace coal fired power stations with an alternative base load power source.
Wind and solar will not cut it as base load sources and hydro and thermal are fine if the resource is available nearby but for many nuclear power is the only one that is available anywhere for those that have the technology.
Logic suggests that as the debate matures nuclear power generation will turn from ‘If’ to ‘How’.
