Willy Packer’s push to develop Jabiluka uranium mine

A southern investor is making a strong case to develop a stranded Territory uranium mine. Read what he said and complete our exclusive poll.

An Australian investor is pushing for development of the Jabiluka uranium prospect near the world-heritage listed Kakadu National Park, to address a worldwide shortage of the critical resource.

Packer & Co. Ltd principal Willy Packer said the local Mirarr people were key in the push to re-establish uranium mining in the Territory three years after the closure of ERA’s Ranger mine.

Mr Packer acknowledged environmental issues with the Ranger mine but said Jabiluka was an underground mine that would be far less ecologically damaging than its predecessor.

“I appreciate the Mirarr people are against it and I would have probably been if I’d seen all the open cut mines and nearby ranger mine, which is a kilometre long on their land,” Mr Packer said.

Willy Packer wants Jabiluka uranium project developed.

“That is currently getting rehabilitated and filled in and put back into the state it was, but it’s not kind. The Jabiluka mine is totally different. It’s an underground mine, it’s not a big open cut where you dig every bit of ground out to try to get a little bit of uranium down the bottom.

“It’s an underground mine where you go down a decline and you just take out the bits of uranium that you want, so you have very little effect on the surface of the earth except maybe ventilation shafts.

“On the environmental front the good news is many of the environmentalists who have always been against uranium and nuclear power are now coming around to see it’s crucial to reduce carbon dioxide in the world, which they see as the number one existential threat to the planet.”

In 1998 more than 5000 people including Peter Garrett joined with Mirarr traditional owners to block the Jabiluka mine development.

In the late 1990s the Mirarr people, supported by high-profile southern activists like rock star Peter Garrett, waged a high-profile campaign against development of the Jabiluka mine before ERA’s owners, Rio Tinto, committed publicly the mine would not go ahead without the support of traditional owners.

Mr Packer said the Territory was an identified uranium province that had produced about 10 per cent of the world’s uranium and the resumption of the sector would deliver considerable economic benefit.

“It could provide 10 per cent of the world’s uranium production for the next 30 years so it’s crucial to the world, but it’s also crucial to Australia as it could deliver $3bn worth of export income and half-a-billion dollars of taxation revenue to the Australian government, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars of royalty income to the Northern Territory government and the local Indigenous people.

“So the Northern Territory government needs it because at the moment it has $11bn in debt, which is $44,000 per person in the NT and double Victoria, so it’s got a problem there. A lot of the Territory mines are shutting down and we’re losing jobs so we believe the Northern Territory needs this Australia needs it and the world needs it more importantly.

Originally published as Willy Packer’s push to develop Jabiluka uranium mine