PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The demand for uranium is likely to increase significantly from 2011 onwards, as nuclear power is expected to play a more prominent role in the global energy mix.

By 2014, a 1 GW nuclear power station would go on line every month, uranium developer Toro Energy MD Greg Hall said on Wednesday in Perth.

He told Mining Weekly Online that demand for the nuclear fuel would increase from 2011 onwards, as power suppliers vied for long-term supply contracts.

He noted that, while the uranium market was expecting flat prices between 2010 and 2011, the long-term prices would pick up as demand increased.

The rise in long-term prices was also likely to see some uranium explorers converting their operations from purely exploration to implementing bankable feasibility studies, and putting contracts in place.

Hall said that Toro was aiming to negotiate long-term takeoff contracts for its uranium supply, with power producers from Europe, Asia, and the US.

Toro, which would spend A$4,5-million on uranium exploration this year, currently has two projects that were near completion, with the Wiluna project, in Western Australia, expected to come online by 2013.

The company was seeking government approval to develop the 25-million pound uranium oxide indicated Joint Ore Reserve Committee (Jorc) resource at its Wiluna project.


Toro is undertaking a fully funded bankable feasibility study and approvals programme at Wiluna.

The Napperby project, in the Northern Territory, is Toro’s second advanced project, and covers two tenements and the historic calcrete style uranium prospect, New Well.

Toro entered into an option agreement with Namibian uranium developer Deep Yellow to purchase the deposit within three years on a per pound basis, and has further undertaken two phases of resource definition and has increased the contained tons of uranium on a Jorc basis.

The uranium developer is currently concluding a scoping study aimed at identifying the key economic factors towards development. Given the favourable political jurisdiction in which this resource lies, it is Toro’s intention to rapidly advance this project to an operating mine status.

Although Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier this month commented that the Australian government was unlikely to turn to nuclear power for its energy needs in the near future, Hall noted that this would not influence uranium exploration and development within the country.

He stated that interests in uranium exploration and development in Australia was mainly driven by the spot and long-term prices of the commodity. And if the unlikely decision were to be made that the current Australian government would go for nuclear-driven power, the most substantial impact, Hall said, would be a short-lived surge in share prices of uranium companies.

Meanwhile, Toro has initiated a uranium and radiation education project with employees and families to understands the basics of radiation and how it relates to uranium mining.

To assist with this, Toro has employed the services of Dr Douglas Boreham, a professor at the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences at the McMaster University, in Canada.

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