PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has called on the federal government to amend policies around uranium mining to attract greater investment in the sector.

Speaking at a uranium conference in Perth, MCA executive director for uranium Daniel Zavattiero said amendments were required to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, which currently classified uranium mining as a nuclear action.

Under current legislation, uranium projects required federal environmental approval before being cleared for development, a clause that did not apply to other commodities.

Zavattiero said the federal approval often caused delays in project development and meant additional costs for the project owners.

Further, approvals processes between the federal and state government, in which the project was located, tended to be duplicative.

“It is past time that the definition of nuclear actions in the EPBC Act is amended to remove uranium mining, milling, decommissioning and rehabilitation. These are not nuclear actions; they are mining and metal extraction processes.”

Zavattiero suggested that uranium projects should only undergo federal environmental approval if it triggered a matter of national environmental significance.

“Projects should be evaluated on those specific triggers like any other project. This should be done effectively and efficiently under a one-stop-shop bilateral assessment approval process,” he said.

The MCA also called for state policies to be consistent across Australia, referring to the fact that uranium mining was allowed in some states, but banned in others.

“[It] is embarrassing and out of date and does not reflect the reality that the industry is well established, well performing and important to our economy and strategic trading relationships. It threatens investment and our relationships with our customers,” Zavattiero said of the differing policies.

He noted that while it would be a difficult reform, since it would extend across both federal and state jurisdictions, the policy change was a necessary one to capture any demand opportunities in the future.

Zavattiero added that uranium transportation in Australia was severely restricted, with exports only allowed from the ports of Darwin and Adelaide.

“State policy, laws and regulations need to be normalised, allowing uranium exports to be transported safely through the most optimal cost competitive route to market,” he said.

Australia was currently exporting between 7 000 t/y and 8 000 t/y of uranium, generating revenues of between A$600-million and A$800-million.