Australia Is Celebrating Japan's LDP Win, Sending Share Prices of Uranium Miners Soaring

Australian uranium miners are positive that the reactors in Japan will be back on shortly under the LDP administration, as they are certain that US$100 million a day spent on extra coal, oil and gas is simply unsustainable for Japan. Australia is here to help, they say.

Sydney Morning Herald reports the shares of Paladin soared more than 8% on Monday following the Japanese election results:

(The announcer looks pretty, but her Australian English is scary.)

Also from the paper's article (12/18/2012; emphasis is mine):

Producers bullish on Japanese demand

by Paddy Manning

GLOBAL uranium demand is set to rebound as Japan's nuclear reactors are gradually switched back on by the new Liberal Democratic Party government, elected over the weekend.

Greg Hall, managing director of junior Toro Energy, said Japan had been spending an additional $US100 million a day on extra coal, oil and gas, which represented a ''very, very high cost''.

After the weekend's election, he said the country now had the political will to restart its reactors. A new independent safety authority would be in place by April and Japan's nuclear power capacity would be restored through 2013-15.

Shares in uranium producers Paladin Energy and Rio Tinto's Energy Resources Australia surged on Monday - by 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively - and the spot price of uranium oxide neared $US44 a pound.

Paladin Energy chief John Borshoff predicted Germany, too, would eventually return to the nuclear power fold. ''Germany can't survive on a no-nuclear basis with all the countries around it pouring electricity into the country. How could Japan survive as an island country?''

Mr Borshoff said it was impossible for Japan to do without 27 per cent of its electricity-generating capacity. ''We've been working on the basis the nuclear programs will resume in some modified form. Germany have set an irreversible path but I believe in eight-10 years they'll be back on the drawing board.''

UBS resources analyst Glyn Lawcock welcomed the Japanese news saying it had been a ''torrid'' 18 months for uranium markets since the closure of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor after last year's Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Japan shut its fleet of 54 reactors in the wake of the partial meltdown, causing power shortages and a rise in energy prices as coal, oil and gas made up the shortfall.

Spot uranium prices fell from their pre-Fukushima level of about $US65/lb to a low of $US40.80 in November and have recovered somewhat since.

Mr Lawcock said until recently investors had been concerned that Japan, which had deferred some deliveries of uranium as stockpiles rose, would turn around and become a net seller into the world market. Paladin was better placed than ERA to benefit, he said, because three-quarters of its output would be sold at prices linked to a rising spot market.

UBS commodities analyst Tom Price said the Fukushima Daiichi reactor was one of Japan's oldest and slated for closure within two years. ''Fukushima was a genuine tragedy but nuclear is a genuine alternative for baseload power stations to coal, and relatively cheap, once built,'' he said.

The indefinite deferral of BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam expansion, and the re-election of the LDP in Japan, were ''two bull points'' for the uranium price and UBS was forecasting a recovery to $US50/lb in 2013, and $US55/lb in 2014 and a long-term price of $US65/lb, he said.

Toro Energy is expecting a decision this week from federal Environment Minister Tony Burke on its 100 per cent-owned Wiluna uranium mine in Western Australia. Toro shares were unchanged on Monday at 11.5¢.

"Mr Borshoff said it was impossible for Japan to do without 27 per cent of its electricity-generating capacity" ??

Mr. Borshoff clearly isn't aware (or chooses not to be aware) that Japan has been doing without the so-called 27% of electricity-generating capacity ever since March 11, 2011, and all it has suffered was a manufactured threat of rolling blackouts thanks to then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and NISA's Nishimura.

"UBS commodities analyst Tom Price...'Fukushima was a genuine tragedy but nuclear is a genuine alternative for baseload power stations to coal, and relatively cheap, once built'"??

Nuclear power plants needs electricity from other power plants to operate, not at all suitable for baseload power stations. And for him to say nuclear is cheap once the plant is built, I suppose he is assuming an accident will never happen.

Mr. Greg Hall, managing director of junior Toro Energy talks about the "political will to restart the reactors".

LDP won two-thirds of the seats by getting votes of only 25% of eligible voters (or 42% of votes actually cast). It's hardly a mandate, but yes political will will be there, which has hardly anything to do with what the majority of the citizens want.

Mr. Hall says one thing that greatly distresses me: new independent safety authority will be in place by April. Hmmm. Either he doesn't know about the Nuclear Regulatory Authority that exists already, or the current Nuclear Regulatory Authority will be ditched, as I've been fearing all along.

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Australia Did It Too: Flying Women's Basketball Team to London Olympics in Economy, While Men's Team Flew in Business Class

So Japan is not so singular in the world. That's good to know. But Australia is about to change that long-time custom without any condition attached like the Japanese Soccer Federation whose head insisted that the team win the gold medal in order to fly home in the business class.

From The Sydney Morning Herald (7/21/2012):

Backflip on Opals travel

BASKETBALL Australia is set to rewrite an inequitable travel policy that saw the male members of the Olympic team fly to London in business class while the female team travelled in premium economy.

Under mounting pressure after the Herald revealed the Opals were given economy tickets to London while the Boomers flew business class, the national sports federation, which has a new chairwoman in the former premier Kristina Keneally, admitted its poor policy. Ms Keneally, who will begin in her new role on August 4, gave a scathing assessment of the travel policy.

''In this day and age, there's just no excuse for men's and women's sporting teams to be treated differently when they both compete at the same world-class level,'' she said.

(H/T John Noah)

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Australia Is "Ideal" for Contaminated Soil and Debris from #Fukushima

Dr. Haruki Madarame, who is resigning as the head of the Nuclear Safety Commission, is remembered by me as having spoke the universal truth when he said "It's all about money, isn't it?" when it comes to nuclear waste.

Here's an ex-minister in Australia, which has been spared with any contamination from Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident, wanting to bring in the contaminated soil and debris from Fukushima to Australia and stored it for the Japanese, in return for the future sales of uranium to Japan and more funding from Japan for the construction projects in western Australia.

The former sports minister now works for a law firm in Tokyo. He also happens to be the chairman of a junior miner. Talk about conflict of interest. And he is proposing to put the contaminated soil and debris on western and southern Australian deserts.

(On second thoughts... It may be better than having the debris burned all over Japan...)

From The Australian (3/15/2012):

Australia 'ideal' for Fukushima soil

Rick Wallace

A HOWARD government minister has entered the nuclear-waste debate by arguing that Australia should accept radioactive debris from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Former sports minister Andrew Thomson said the move would help break a deadlock in Japan that is jeopardising recovery efforts from last year's March 11 tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

His comments come after the Senate's approval of the Muckaty Station site in Northern Territory as a nuclear waste dump -- and new Foreign Minister Bob Carr's remarks backing atomic energy in Australia -- reignited debate on the issue.

Because of a last-minute Greens amendment, the Muckaty site cannot accept waste from abroad, but Mr Thomson said the vast deserts of Western Australia and South Australia were perfect spots for the Fukushima waste.

In Japan, no prefecture has agreed to house the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste from the world's second-worst nuclear tragedy and it is piling up in temporary storage sites obstructing reconstruction efforts.

Most of the waste consists of contaminated soil and debris removed during clean-up efforts from areas just outside the 20km exclusion zone around the plant and is only mildly radioactive.

Mr Thomson, who now works for law firm Minter Ellison in Tokyo, said Australia could offer "ideal places to dispose of this debris and store it safely".

"This stuff is only mildly radioactive, it's not going to harm anyone, but the last place you want to store it is Japan -- it's just too crowded," he said.

"Western Australia has benefited greatly from Japanese demand for iron ore and base metals and South Australia is launching a major uranium export industry. It's only fair and reasonable if we propose to sell more uranium to Japan in future that we should offer such help now when Japan really needs it."

Mr Thomson told The Australian his proposal related only to the debris, not the spent fuel or other nuclear waste from Fukushima or any other plant.

The former minister said that, in return for storing the Fukushima waste, Australia should receive more funding from Japan to ensure the construction of the troubled Oakajee port and rail project in WA, thereby unlocking the mid-west iron region.

The former minister and chairman of junior miner Athena Resources acknowledged he had a vested interest as Athena may one day use the port, which has hit problems with cost overruns but may be rescued by Mitsubishi.

"Most of the waste consists of contaminated soil and debris removed during clean-up efforts from areas just outside the 20km exclusion zone around the plant and is only mildly radioactive", writes Mr. Rick Wallace.

Well, since when has the soil with over 3 million becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium ("black dust" of Minami Soma), or even the soil in Watari District in Fukushima City with more than 200,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium become "only mildly radioactive"?


(H/T anon reader who's fleeing Japan to Australia)

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Australian Government Wants to Impose 40% Tax on Mining Profit

talk about killing the goose that lay golden eggs...

Whether it is a struggling economy like Greece, or a debt-laden country like the US, or a booming economy like Australia, what the governments do is the same: trying to extract more and more money from the productive sector of the economy and distribute it to the unproductive sector. They rarely fail in their endeavor to do so.

Mining shares tumble on Australian tax plan (5/3/2010 AP via Yahoo Finance)

"CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Shares of mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto tumbled Monday after the Australian government proposed a new 40 percent tax on the booming profits of resource companies.

"The big miners' losses dragged the Australian market down by about 1 percent in morning trade after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Sunday that the tax would be introduced in 2012 and raise an additional 9 billion Australian dollars ($8.3 billion) per year.

"The new tax targets miners that have made bumper profits as burgeoning demand from manufacturers in China and India pushed up the price of iron ore and other commodities.

"The mining industry has warned that such a tax would stall investment or shift it to other countries.

"Shares in BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, fell 3.7 percent in early trading while Anglo-Australian rival Rio Tinto shed 5.6 percent.

""The resources stocks are really getting carved up this morning given the land grab by the federal government," said Austock Securities stockbroker Michael Heffernan.

"After the tax announcement, BHP Billiton said the measure would raise the total effective tax rate on the company's profits from 43 percent to 57 percent." [The article continues.]

The move by the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (Labor Party) is seen as a ploy to attract union and blue-collar workers in the election later this year.

Australia never went into recession in the global turmoil caused by the US financial near-meltdown in 2008, thanks largely to its booming mining industry. The country was the first to raise interest rates to curve inflation. Looks like Rudd's government has found a way to cool the economy back into deep freeze.

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Australia Shines

The sun is shining bright on "Down Under".

The country didn't go into recession in the current global downturn; its stock market is hitting the 14-month high, its currency is also hitting the 14-month high after the central bank RAISED the interest rate. Businesses are bullish on the future growth, and consumers are spending. Unlike EU and the U.S., real estate values have INCREASED this year.

That's what a healthy, growing economy does, I think.

Australia Helped by Rate Increase as Stocks Advance
(10/7/09 Bloomberg)

"Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Mining companies and brewers are benefiting from an Australian economy that is growing so fast the central bank suddenly raised interest rates, buoying the currency and giving global investors another reason to favor Down Under among the world’s hottest markets.

"“If you bought stocks that you thought were exposed to economic growth, you can feel more confident that you made the right decision,” said Matlock, manager of the International Equity Fund at Huntington, which oversees $15 billion. “What the Australian central bank is tacitly saying is we’re pretty confident our economy is on firm-enough footing to withstand an increase in rates.”

"Australia raised its benchmark rate yesterday, becoming the first country in the so-called Group of 20 nations to boost borrowing costs since the start of the credit crisis, after it avoided a recession and Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens said the “risk of serious economic contraction” had passed. Gross domestic product will rise 0.7 percent this year, bucking the 3.4 percent slide for advanced economies, the International Monetary Fund said last week."

Analysts and fund managers there think Australia has both the growing domestic industry that supplies to increasingly confident consumers and the export industry that produces what people in the growth region (mostly China and Asia) wants.

There are those, as featured in the Bloomberg article, who think the central bank raised the rate too soon with the economy still not on a sound footing. However, as many traders of stock markets know, it's the reaction to the news that matters, at least for now. Judging by the reaction of the Australian stock market to both the rate hike and the strength of Australian dollar, they like what they see down there.

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