Uranium miner ERA announces halt to expansion plans at Ranger 3 Deeps, near Jabiru

ENERGY Resources of Australia Ltd has placed its controversial Ranger 3 Deeps project on indefinite hold, quashing hopes for 390 possible jobs.

Supplied Editorial Fwd: ERA progresses Ranger 3 Deeps approvals

URANIUM mining company Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) has placed its controversial Ranger 3 Deeps project on indefinite hold.

The move has quashed hopes for 390 jobs that could have been created at the mine if the expansion project had gone ahead.

Doubt has been swirling around the project for more than a year, with the company posting massive losses since the December 2013 failure of a leach tank at the nearby processing plant.

In a statement to the stock exchange, ERA said it will “revisit the project’s economics over time”.

The company said it is in discussion with Traditional Owners and the Commonwealth government over an extension to the site’s operating authority.

Under current arrangements, the company will have to cease mining by 2021.

In April, ERA CEO Andrea Sutton denied that it was negotiating an extension, telling the NT News that the Ranger 3 Deeps project was “integral to the company’s future”.

“We are (currently) working within the framework that we have,” Ms Sutton said.

Company reports to the stock exchange over the past year have painted an increasingly grim future for the company. It posted a $188 million loss in 2014, and a $136 million loss in 2013.

The company noted for the first time in April that outside investment would be required for Ranger 3 Deeps to progress beyond its current state.

ERA’s majority shareholder Rio Tinto advised the Australian Securities Exchange on Thursday night that it “does not support any further study or the future development of Ranger 3 Deeps due to the project’s economic challenges.”

The major challenge for ERA has been the weak global uranium market.

Although ERA expressed optimism about an improving global market, independent analysts and the company’s environmental critics have long been more sceptical about a recovery in the uranium market, and the viability of the future.

In its statement, Rio Tinto committed to the rehabilitation of the Ranger mine site, located within Kakadu National Park.

Doubts around the mine’s rehabilitation have long been a point of concern for the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Environment Centre NT - two of the company’s most vocal critics.

ERA’s decision to put Ranger 3 Deeps on hold comes on the same day that BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie told The Australian that it will expand its operations at South Australia’s Olympic Dam Mine.

The announcement is the first major move from BHP after it jettisoned its poorly performing mines into a separate company South32.

The new targets will see Olympic Dam become the largest uranium mine in the world.

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