Heathgate uranium mine made a crippling loss

Fukushima fallout for uranium stings Heathgate ResourcesFinancial Review, SIMON EVANS, 26 Aug 13 Heathgate Resources, the owner of the Beverley uranium mine in northern South Australia, has suffered losses totalling a whopping $60 million over the past two years.

Heathgate has operated Beverley since 2000, but has been hit hard in its past two financial years by a plunge in global uranium prices.Beverley is one of four uranium mines in Australia, and Heathgate is also involved in the nearby Four Mile uranium project, set to become the nation’s fifth uranium mine as regulatory approvals move a step closer.

Uranium prices fell by more than 50 per cent after the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan in March 2011, and have failed to recover . Heathgate Resources made a loss of $34.5 million in calendar 2012 according to its latest financial statements lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

This ­followed a loss of $25.6 million in 2011.

Heathgate’s total revenue in ­calendar 2012 was $59 million, according to its financial statements, a ­substantial slump from the 2011 when total revenue was $84.6 million.

Heathgate president Craig Bartels declined to comment on the results and the operating performance.

Heathgate is owned by the US-based global nuclear giant General Atomics, as is one of Heathgate’s stablemates, Quasar Resources, which holds a 75 per cent stake in the Four Mile project. The other 25 per cent of Four Mile is owned by ASX-listed Alliance Resources, but the two groups are still involved in court action over past ­disagreements about how best to develop the resource…… http://www.afr.com/p/australia2-0/fukushima_fallout_for_uranium_stings_7q6Q2t7EXWB2IaLsOu5w0L

Nuclear weapons company gets approval for Australian uranium project

Final environmental OK for Four Mile World Nuclear news, 16 August 2013 The start of operation of the Four Mile uranium mine in South Australia has moved a step closer with final environmental approval. However, the project partners have yet to agree on a development plan.

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The state Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has now granted a mining and mineral processing licence for Four Mile. The licence also covers radiation and radioactive waste management plans for the in-situ leach (ISL) mine…..

The Four Mile project is a joint venture between Alliance Resources (25%) and Quasar Resources (75%). The project is managed by Heathgate Resources affiliate Quasar. Both Quasar and Heathgate are subsidiaries of US-based General Atomic Technologies Corp.….

Disputes delay start-up

The start of production from the project has been stymied by legal disputes between Alliance, Quasar and Heathgate. There are on-going Federal Court proceedings by Alliance seeking restitution of its full ownership of the Four Mile deposit due to delays and disagreements.

In May 2012, Alliance said it had agreed to form a strategic alliance with Japanese trading house Itochu Corporation. Under the terms of this, Itochu will have the right to acquire a 14.9% shareholding in Alliance within six months of all litigation being finally determined. Furthermore, within 12 months of that final determination, Itochu will have an option to acquire a further 25.1% shareholding in Alliance.

South Australia’s Four Mile uranium project – its dangerous and dirty connections

(Christina Macpherson, originally posted on 4 Nov 2012) Leaving aside its nasty little internal squabbles, Australia’s fifth uranium mine Four Mile uranium project in South Australia is without doubt the most striking example of  all that is wrong about Australia’s uranium industry. Well, next door, is Beverley mine – equally bad. But they’re practically the same, in that they are both practically owned by USA’s General Atomics. Neal Blue is the chairman of Quasar Resources, which is affiliated with General Atomics, a major United States weapons and nuclear energy corporation. He is CEO of Heathgate Resources.  a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of General Atomics (GA) which owns Beverley uranium mine. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors for General Atomics

General Atomics has a murky history  It develops nuclear technologies including arms manufacture. Especially those Predator drones which kill anybody that the Pentagon thinks is “suspicious” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Neal Blue was one of the designers of Predator. At its uranium processing plant on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, General Atomics for years covered up radioactive water and gas leaks.

General Atomic has spent $thousands’ lobbying and ferrying of  USA politicians to Australia, , and Australian  federal and state politicians to USA . In 2000 Heathgate applauded police brutality against environmentalists and local Aboriginal people. An online video clip details this brutality. the police action (in a 2000 media release which is no longer available online). After a 10-year legal case, 10 people were awarded a total of $700,000 damages.

General Atomics flew a group from the US Congress to Australia, accompanied by company executives, to persuade the Federal Government to buy the company’s Predator unmanned aircraft

As well as its interest in unmanned spy planes, General Atomics has employed human spies. In 2008 it was caught hiring a former undercover police officer turned private investigator to infiltrate Australian environment groups and report on their actions.

In 2008 General Atomics and Neal Blue were  sued for fraudulently hiking uranium prices and manipulating costs. In the settlement One of General Atomics’s customers, Exelon, received $US41 million from the company. It is estimated Mr Blue made $US200 million by breaking the contracts and selling uranium on the spot market

Heathgate Resources  have been promoting the view that low-level radiation is beneficial, and funding the Australian visits of people like Dr Doug  Dr Boreham prepared to promote those views.

Heathgate is not required to clean up  Four Mile uranium mine. and there is no requirement it decontaminate the  Beverley site when mining ceases. Christina Macpherson 25 Oct 12,

Go-ahead for disputed uranium joint venture BY: BARRY FITZGERALD From: The Australian October 25, 2012THE much-delayed Four Mile uranium project in South Australia – a joint venture between ASX-listed Alliance Resources (25 per cent) and US group Heathgate (75 per cent) – is finally being developed.

 

It will be Australia’s fifth uranium mine and comes as the Gillard government begins work on agreements to sell uranium to India.

Shares in Alliance, 25.8 per cent owned by Ian Gandel’s Abbotsleigh,
shot 55 per cent higher to 29.5c on news of the go-ahead.

That was despite plans for Four Mile to start at a much smaller scale
than Alliance would have preferred – a situation that underpins
ongoing litigation between the partners in the joint venture….. as
given environmental clearance by former anti-uranium activist Peter
Garrett when he was federal environment minister in 2009.

Squabbling between the partners over the best way to develop the
resource delayed a go-ahead decision. Heathgate’s operating subsidiary
Quasar wanted to use its processing facilities at the nearby Beverley
uranium operations, while Alliance pushed for a stand-alone operation
on a larger scale…..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/go-ahead-for-disputed-uranium-joint-venture/story-e6frg8zx-1226502684325

Four Mile uranium mine – Australia’s nastiest and dirtiest

Leaving aside its nasty little internal squabbles, Australia’s fifth uranium mine Four Mile uranium project in South Australia is without doubt the most striking example of  all that is wrong about Australia’s uranium industry. Well, next door, is Beverley mine – equally bad. But they’re practically the same, in that they are both practically owned by USA’s General Atomics. Neal Blue is the chairman of Quasar Resources, which is affiliated with General Atomics, a major United States weapons and nuclear energy corporation. He is CEO of Heathgate Resources.  a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of General Atomics (GA) which owns Beverley uranium mine. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors for General Atomics

General Atomics has a murky history  It develops nuclear technologies including arms manufacture. Especially those Predator drones which kill anybody that the Pentagon thinks is “suspicious” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Neal Blue was one of the designers of Predator. At its uranium processing plant on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, General Atomics for years covered up radioactive water and gas leaks.

General Atomic has spent $thousands’ lobbying and ferrying of  USA politicians to Australia, , and Australian  federal and state politicians to USA . In 2000 Heathgate applauded police brutality against environmentalists and local Aboriginal people. An online video clip details this brutality. the police action (in a 2000 media release which is no longer available online). After a 10-year legal case, 10 people were awarded a total of $700,000 damages.

General Atomics in control of regulators in Colorado in uranium toxic pond

“Basically, the judgment of the nuclear fuels industry and its captive regulators in Colorado is not to be trusted when it comes to matters of health, safety, and a clean environment,” 

General Atomics subsidiary wants to stop toxic pond tests, By David O. Williams, Real Aspen – August 14, 2011 Rather than seek an appropriate technological solution, managers of a decommissioned uranium processing mill near Cañon City want the state to let them stop testing a radioactive holding pond because wooden pallets used to cross the pond are sinking into the toxic mud.

Distrust between uranium mining partners Quasar and Alliance

Alliance claimed it wanted to protect its interests but Quasar countered that the confidentiality of the meetings could be put at risk.

Uranium companies at odds on recording devices  ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Sep 1, 2010 A company involved in developing a uranium mine near Beverley in the far north-east of South Australia has lost an attempt to record confidential meetings.

General Atomics’ history of violating environmental laws

“Since General Atomics acquired the Cotter Corporation in 2000, the company has had over a hundred violations of federal and state environmental laws,” Jantz told The Independent. “This demonstrates a pattern of willful disregard for environmental law, which is a real concern for the community.”

Proposed Mt. Taylor uranium mine faces new obstacle « New Mexico Independent, By Marjorie Childress 10 May 2010, A controversial plan to open an old uranium mine on Mt. Taylor, near Grants, New Mexico, is now facing a new obstacle. The Colorado legislature just passed a law forbidding an expansion or increase in operations at uranium mills until they clean up existing sites their operations have contaminated in the past.