Kristen Moran reports that uranium market participants tend to focus on catalysts like reactor restarts in Japan and new plant builds in China, but the recent news that an Australian governmental committee supports the Australia-India uranium trade deal makes it clear that India is worth watching as well.
India plans to triple its nuclear capacity by 2024, from 5 gigawatts up to 17 gigawatts, and is aiming to have 25% of its electricity come from nuclear power by 2050. At present, the Southeast Asian nation has 21 nuclear reactors in operation and six under construction, as well as 22 planned and an estimated 35 proposed.
According to World Nuclear News, India is a major potential market for Australian uranium, but the India status as a nuclear-armed country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) complicates the situation.
To gain a better understanding of what the Australia-India deal means and how the India growing uranium demand could affect the global market, the Investing News Network caught up with Toro Energy CEO Vanessa Guthrie. Guthrie not only has a long history of experience in the mining industry, but was also appointed this year as MP to the Australia-India Prime Ministers CEO Forum by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Her role is to help drive the economic relationship between Australia and India.
Australian Liberal-National MP Wyatt Roy told the ABC that the Australia-India deal could increase export revenues by $1.75 billion, almost doubling the size of the Australian uranium mining industry, it would be especially lucrative for rural and remote areas. That is important considering that Australia has been producing less and less uranium in recent years.
Olympic Dam is continuing to produce and will continue to do so at its current rate, but it is not expected to expand. Beverley and Four Mile are producing, but their small production goes directly to the U.S. because they are U.S. owned.
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