Australia gears up for uranium exports to China

Australian uranium exports to China could begin early next year, with Australia expected to capture about one third of the growing Chinese uranium market, a government official said today.

John Carlson, director-general of the Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office, said government-to-government agreements to allow the export of Australian uranium to China should be ratified by the end of this year.

He said no commercial contracts had yet been signed between Australian miners and Chinese nuclear generators.

“In principle, we could have uranium going to China in the first half of next year,” Carlson told a government committee that is investigating the trade agreements.

Australia, which has 40% of the world’s known uranium reserves, could expect to be supplying a third of the 8,000 tons of uranium a year that Beijing expects to be using to fuel its nuclear power generation by 2020, he said.