Rio
Tinto casts doubt over
Jabiluka's
future
ABC
News
Fri,
23 Mar 2001 15:59 AEDT
The
future of the Jabiluka uranium mine in the
Northern
Territory is in doubt after comments from
the mining
company Rio Tinto.
The
company says it is unlikely to fund the
development
of the mine, surrounded by Kakadu
National
Park.
Rio
Tinto is the major shareholder in Energy
Resources of
Australia (ERA), which owns
Jabiluka.
Rio's
chief executive told a Sydney lunch it would
be hard for
Rio to support the development of
Jabiluka in
the short-term, given the opposition to
the mine,
and the low price for uranium.
ERA
says it is still committed to project, and is in
no rush,
with a decade of operations still to go at
its nearby
Ranger mine.
But
the Greens Senator, Bob Brown, says it is the
death of the
controversial project.
"It's
going to be very difficult for ERA to recover
from this
position, pour the necessary millions into
proceeding
with the mine or to find a buyer at a
time
when the world uranium market is so bleak,"
he said.
=A9 1999 Australian Broadcasting
Corporation
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