Big US uranium mine grows
Do they know something or are they taking a punt?
One of the biggest uranium mines in Wyoming – the US’ top producer of the yellow metal – plans to more than double in size on the hope prices, weak since the Fukushima disaster in 2011 – will start to climb again, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Under the plan, production from the site would increase from about 800,000 pounds a year to as much 1.2 million pounds. Total permitted production would increase from 1 million to 2.2 million pounds, which includes as much as 1 million tons brought to Lost Creek from elsewhere for processing into yellowcake, a uranium concentrate powder, the paper writes.
The proposed expansion must be approved by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is taking public comment on the move.
This could add to the impediments facing Australian uranium hopefuls such as Toro Energy and Vimy Resources.
Cayuga concern
Coal ash sitting dormant in an unlined landfill near the Cayuga Power Plant has been seeping into groundwater for nearly 30 years and has flowed into nearby Milliken Creek, the Ithaca Journal reports.
There are concerns that coal ash could be contaminating drinking water.
The paper quotes Tennessee-based geology firm Global Environmental owner Mark Quarles saying he revealed a lack of oversight in how groundwater contamination was monitored.
Specifically, there was an insufficient amount of monitoring wells and, given that, the rate at which contamination was spreading through the groundwater could not be determined and no rate had been established.
Coal India changes approach
The Indian government is on the verge of adopting a clearing auction model, The Economic Times reports.
According to the paper this model of auction simply offers a volume of coal to be sold and asks interested parties to bid for the whole or part of the coal volume at a definite price fixed by the seller.
This is a bid to replace the old system of offering coal supply contracts on a nomination basis with an auction-linked supply system.
