Uranium in South Australia

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

South Australia is recognised for its high prospectivity for uranium and proven track record of uranium mining and is a major exporter of uranium oxide to the world and currently attracts many companies (including global majors) exploring, developing and mining uranium in the state.

South Australia hosts vast resources of uranium approximately 80% of Australia’s economic demonstrated resources of uranium, which is approximately 23% of the world’s uranium resources. The Olympic Dam deposit in South Australia is the largest uranium deposit in the world, containing more than 2 million tonnes of uranium oxide. South Australia produced and exported 5493 t (valued at $499 million) of uranium oxide in 2016 (Government of South Australia resource production statistics 2016). This is 63% of Australia’s mined uranium oxide production of 6946 t in 2016 (Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS) 2016), which is around 10% of world production. This amount of uranium can fuel 22 by 1GW commissioned reactors, powering almost 20 million homes for a year.

In the past decade (2007–2016) uranium mining has contributed more than $3.5 billion in export revenue to the South Australian economy, and $141 million in royalties to South Australians. South Australia hosts four of Australia’s six approved uranium mines: Olympic Dam (South Australia), Beverley and Beverley North (South Australia, currently in care and maintenance), Four Mile (South Australia), Honeymoon (South Australia, currently in care and maintenance), Ranger (Northern Territory), and Wiluna (Western Australia).

To this list, the Samphire and associated deposits must be added on the basis that because of the shallow depths and high grades reported there would demand development when prices return to the industry.

For updates on uranium mines in South Australia, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Uranium_mines_in_South_Australia