Labor appears idealogically split on uranium despite the Federal party's decision to lift a ban on new mines. South Australian premier Mike Rann today welcomed the end of an "outdated, illogical" position but Alan Carpenter says a ban will stay here.
Premier Alan Carpenter today ruled out lifting a uranium mining ban in WA despite agreeing to federal Labor's decision to lift its 25-year ban at its national conference at the weekend.
Mr Carpenter's position was in stark contrast to the reaction of his Labor colleague, South Australian premier Mike Rann, who today welcomed the changed federal position to "finally end its illogical, outdated and ineffectual 'no new mines' policy".
Mr Rann, speaking at a resources conference in Adelaide, said Labor had decided to "at last join the real world when it comes to uranium".
He thanked Mr Rudd for helping South Australia score a big victory, a change that will help underpin the state's position as the most mining friendly jurisdiction, with exploration up 433 per cent in four years.
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies's Ian Loftus also focused on the difference between the WA and South Australian positions, and said Mr Carpenter's rejection of mining on the basis that the state would become a nuclear waste dump was "an increasingly desperate attempt to find reasons on which to justify a ban on uranium mining".
In Perth, addressing the resource-dominant audience at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy's annual meeting, Mr Carpenter said he would not agree to uranium mining as long as we was Premier because it would increase pressure on the state to accept nuclear waste.
"Our position when we went over there (to the ALP conference) was that we would support a change to the position to allow the expansion of uranium mining if that is what other jurisdictions want to do," Mr Carpenter said.
But he said his government would not lift its ban.
"The Western Australian people, I believe, have quite clearly said they don't want uranium mining in this state and until the do, and they won't while I am the Premier, we won't have any.
"I understand all the issues there. I've said it before, the pressure would be enormous on WA to be the recipient of the waste. I don't want us to be the jurisdiction in the world that people point at and say that is where the world's nuclear waste goes. We have better things to promote here in Western Australia. We don't support uranium mining. The key change is that it will allow states to determine if they mine uranium or not and how much. I suspect that this issue will go on being debated and that's a good thing.
"It doesn't trouble me that there is debate and I do not feel under the slightest bit of pressure."
Mr Carpenter said "great financial benefits are being promised to WA if we establish an international nuclear facility".
"WA as it stands right now does not uranium and we in a strong position to resist any pressure that says we should be the recipient of nuclear waste," he said.
Below is the AMEC release, followed by a full text of Mike Rann's speech:
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) rejects suggestions made by WA Premier Alan Carpenter that uranium mining would be tied to the return of nuclear waste to Western Australia.
An AMEC spokesman said, "the Premier's comments reflect an increasingly desperate attempt to find reasons on which to justify a ban on uranium mining, and are both wrong and misleading. I don't believe that the citizens of WA will continue to buy that spin for very much longer."
"Mike Rann, Premier of South Australia, has no problems with endorsing an expansion of Australia's uranium mining industry, yet remains firmly against the storage of waste in his state. He clearly understands that the two issues are quite separate."
"It's only a matter of time before the WA Government aligns its position with that taken by the federal ALP over the weekend", said Ian Loftus, AMEC's Policy and Public Affairs Manager.
Below is the full text of Mike Rann's speech:
Good morning.
It's a great pleasure to open this conference...
...and to welcome interstate and overseas delegates to South Australia.
We couldn't have come together at a more exciting time...
...at a more historic moment...
...than this morning.
Because the South Australian resources and energy industry is today experiencing an unprecedented boom.
It's clocking up record-breaking achievements...
...including a 433 per cent increase in mining exploration over the past four years.
And both the number and scale of investments now on the horizon in our State are massive...
...by one forecast worth a total of $24 billion in investment over the coming decades.
In addition to all this, we're today celebrating...
...and "celebrating" is not too strong a word to use...
...a political and policy breakthrough of huge, long-term implications for the industry and the State.
And that was the decision by the Australian Labor Party, at the weekend, to at last join the real world when it comes to uranium...
...to finally end its illogical, outdated and ineffectual "no new mines" policy.
I'm very proud to have played a role in ending a policy that made no sense.
And I commend Kevin Rudd for helping South Australia score a big win.
Most of all, I'm delighted that the ALP has scrapped a policy that had the potential to restrict the development of South Australia's vast uranium resources.
The old ALP policy did nothing whatsoever to prevent the expansion of existing uranium mines...
...such as the Olympic Dam mine in the north of this State...
...which is poised to more than double in size.
But the policy did represent a ban on the number of mines in existence.
Under a Federal Labor government, this would have blocked exciting and potentially world-class projects like the Quasar-Alliance joint venture development of the Beverley 4 Mile site...
...which I announced when I visited BHP Billiton's Escondida mine, in Chile, a few weeks ago.
The ALP conference decision on uranium represents, from my point of view, "mission accomplished".
It's a victory for common sense.
It's a victory for South Australia.
And it's a victory for your industry.
And, from today, I'm going to work closely with you in order to translate that victory into tangible results...
...results in the form of jobs and growth and opportunity.
Ladies and gentlemen.
The uranium policy change is great news for South Australia.
But it's just the latest in a series of very positive developments in this State's resources sector.
One year ago, I stood before you at this conference and talked about the advances we had made together.
But, even back then, I couldn't have predicted the fantastic gains we would make over the following 12 months...
...or the large number of new ventures now in the works.
Let me touch on just some of the terrific things that have happened.
This time last year, I told you...
...that the value of mining exploration in South Australia had increased by 79 per cent in calendar year 2005...
...that our share of national exploration spending had increased from 6 per cent to 8.8 per cent...
...and that we were on the verge of eclipsing the $100 million target we had set ourselves.
I'm pleased to tell you this morning that South Australia's exploration performance in 2006 was even more impressive.
Last calendar year, spending reached $191.4 million...
...which was a staggering 92.6 per cent annual increase.
This allowed our share of national exploration to rise from 8.8 per cent to 13 per cent.
And it meant that we smashed through our $100 million target two years ahead of schedule.
Another area in which we've progressed is "mining prospectivity".
Last year, I told you that South Australia had risen from the middle order to near the top of the Fraser Institute's index of mining potential...
...moving from position no. 36, to no. 18, to no. 6 in the space of three years on the Institute's survey of more than 60 jurisdictions worldwide.
Since then, we've moved up another two notches to be the fourth best place in the world for mining potential.
It's worth noting that the Fraser Institute gave South Australia high marks in a number of other categories as well...
...such as policy, stability, labour regulations, socioeconomic agreements and geological database.
I should mention, too, that South Australia recorded excellent results on the National Scorecard of Mining Approval Processes...
...which has been developed by the Minerals Council of Australia.
The current scorecard ranks South Australia either first or second in 15 of the 17 categories within the survey.
We did especially well in the area of native title...
...largely thanks to the ongoing success of our Indigenous Land Use Agreements, or ILUAs.
Just on that issue, I believe that mining has great potential benefits for regional communities in South Australia...
...and especially Aboriginal communities.
I'd particularly like to congratulate companies such as Oxiana and OneSteel for their training programs for Aboriginal people...
...programs leading to genuine jobs in their mines.
The South Australian Government's practical support for the resources industry has also increased recently.
At last year's conference, I talked about our Plan for Accelerating Exploration, or PACE, initiative...
...which has provided support to industry in order to foster exploration.
Just recently, I was pleased to announce that this coming June's State Budget would see the PACE program extended even further...
...with an extra $8.4 million over a period of two years.
So this will take our level of support, through PACE, to a total of $30.9 million over seven years.
PACE has been particularly valuable in the field of drilling collaboration, and it can boast playing a role in four major successes.
These are...
...the Carrapateena copper gold prospect, located 100 kilometres southeast of Olympic Dam...
...the 4 Mile uranium prospect near Heathgate's current Beverley operations...
...Iluka's Gulliver heavy mineral sands prospect, 60 kilometres east of Ceduna...
...and the Oakdale base metals prospect in the central Eyre Peninsula.
The resources and energy industry is...
...and will remain...
...a very high priority for the State Government, and for me personally.
I've visited a number of major South Australian resource projects recently.
And, as I mentioned earlier, I toured BHP Billiton's awesome Escondida and Spence operations in Chile a few weeks ago...
...a trip that left me only more determined to help our State fulfil its mining and export potential.
Earlier this month, we invited the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy to make a special presentation to State Cabinet...
...and this very usefully informed us about the industry's future infrastructure needs.
We are continuing to support the South Australian Minerals and Petroleum Expert Group...
...which includes a number of high-profile "ambassadors" drawn from the industry who are promoting this State's capabilities worldwide.
Just some of these "ambassadors" are Derek Carter, Ian Gould and Keith Yates.
In the area of renewables, we're enthusiastically backing geothermal energy.
More than $500 million worth of geothermal investment in South Australia is forecast for the decade to 2012.
And the Government has granted 116 geothermal exploration licences...
...covering 54,000 square kilometres of the State.
This represents 90 per cent of the geothermal work that is today either underway, or proposed, across the entire country.
Our Department of Primary Industries and Resources will continue to administer a world-class, "one-stop-shop" regulatory regime.
And it will continue to provide valuable exploration data to companies.
The development of skills within the resources sector...
...especially among young people...
...is, of course, vital to our long-term success.
Acknowledging this fact, the Government is setting up five Mineral Resources and Heavy Engineering Skills Centres...
...and these will soon start operating in Adelaide, Port Augusta, Port Pirie, Whyalla and Ceduna.
All the initiatives I've mentioned this morning should be seen in the context of the overarching plan we've mapped out for ourselves in this State...
...and that is South Australia's Strategic Plan.
Last year, when we updated the Plan, we didn't want South Australia to rest on its laurels.
So we added new targets right across the board.
And we made the existing targets harder, not easier.
In line with this approach, we made sure that targets relating to minerals exploration, production and processing remain central to the Plan's economic goals.
The target relating specifically to exploration demands that spending in South Australia exceeds $100 million a year between now and 2010.
And we've brought forward, by six years, our targets for $3 billion in minerals production and $1 billion in minerals processing.
Ladies and gentlemen.
As I said at the start of my speech, both the scale and number of opportunities now on offer in South Australia are huge.
And I'd like to close this morning by giving you a better sense of what's going on.
Exploration Licence Coverage for mineral exploration has increased dramatically in South Australia since 2004.
And, based on the latest figures, we have the highest number of drilling proposals and drilling metres ever recorded.
In 2001, South Australia had only four operating mines...
...Olympic Dam, OneSteel at Whyalla, Leigh Creek coal and the Beverley uranium mine.
Today we have eight operating mines...
...with significant expansions planned at Olympic Dam and Beverley, and nearly completed at Project Magnet at Whyalla.
Even more importantly, we have more than 30 "red-hot" mining or geothermal projects in prospect...
...that together represent billions of dollars worth of potential extra investment.
The 2001 discovery of Prominent Hill by Minotaur heralded a huge exploration boom...
...a trend that was only fostered and accelerated by the start of the PACE initiative in 2004.
In 2007, there are established, developing and emerging mineral projects spread right across the State...
...from Iluka's Jacinth, Ambrosia and Tripitaka discoveries in the Eucla Basin...
...to Project Magnet...
...to Mindarie and Angus.
And there are plenty of others, including...
...Teck Cominco's outstanding copper gold intersections at Carrapateena...
...Central Gawler iron ore prospects at places such as Cairn Hill and Wilgerup...
...and copper, gold lead and zinc discoveries in the Adelaide Geosyncline.
In the petroleum sector, spending on exploration has also boomed.
The value of petroleum exploration in this State rose by 57 per cent in 2006 to $146.9 million.
We've also seen a 70 per cent increase in exploration drilling in the past two years.
The number of petroleum exploration licences has increased by 18 per cent since 2005.
Petroleum sales were up 22 per cent in 2006.
And the total area under petroleum exploration licences in South Australia has more than doubled over the past year.
Returning to the topic of uranium, this is a field of mining that is growing very rapidly, indeed.
Over the past 12 months, the money spent on exploring for uranium in South Australia has topped $30 million...
...which is the highest figure in 25 years.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 56 per cent of Australia's uranium exploration activity is occurring in this State.
Today, about 60 companies and individuals hold a total of more than 160 exploration licences for uranium in South Australia...
...and more than 100 further licences are being sought.
There is a growing number of Adelaide-based uranium explorers listing...
...or proposing to list...
...on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Right across the resource sector, the prospects for increased investment are extremely promising.
Indeed, a recent survey by the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy of various local resource companies found that their cumulative, projected capital expenditure over the next 10 to 20 years is $24 billion...
...with an estimated $11.5 billion being outlayed in the first five years alone.
Ladies and gentlemen.
When Labor came to office in South Australia in 2002, we vowed to be pro-mining, pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-business.
And that's exactly what we've been...
...and what we will continue to be.
In the space of just five years...
...exploration has gone from a trickle to a torrent...
...the industry has massively boosted its contribution to the State's economy...
...our standing within the global mining investment community has improved astronomically...
...we've doubled the number of operating mines...
...and we have another 30 or so in prospect.
As of less than 48 hours ago, South Australia is now totally and completely "open for business" in the area of uranium mining and export...
...a carbon-free energy source for the future.
In more general terms, our partnership with you is helping to prove that environmental sustainability and economic development can and must go together.
In 2007, no serious international resources investor can be in any doubt that South Australia is the place to be.
And nobody should doubt my personal commitment...
...and the commitment of my Government...
...to making your industry a mainstay of South Australia's economic prosperity for generations to come.
I am now very proud officially to open the 2007 South Australian Resources and Energy Investment Conference.
Thank you.
