CANBERRA, Australia, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called for the lifting of a ban on uranium exports to India.
Australia's Labor Party's policy prohibits selling uranium to India and other nations that have refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But Gillard said on Tuesday that the 2008 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement "changed that strategy," effectively lifting the de facto international ban on India.
Stressing that India was in "a class of its own," and pointing to Israel and Pakistan as examples, Gillard implied that Australia would not open up potential uranium sales to other countries which had not signed the treaty.
Gillard said she would urge Labor members to back the new policy at her party's national conference next month.
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"I believe the time has come for the Labor party to change this position. Selling uranium to India will be good for the Australian economy and good for jobs," Gillard told reporters.
Australia is the world's third largest supplier of uranium, currently contributing more than $750 million to the Australian economy, she said.
Noting that India is expected to increase nuclear power from its current 3 percent of electricity generation to 40 percent by 2050 and that India now represents Australia's fourth biggest export market, worth nearly $16 billion, Gillard said: "I think those statistics give a sense of the size and scale of the economic opportunity here for Australia in the future.
"This will be one way we can take another step forward in our relationship with India. We have a good relationship with India, it is the world largest democracy, a stable democracy."
If uranium exports to India were allowed, it would create a new avenue of funding for emerging miners, said Greg Hall, managing director of Toro Energy, considered a uranium "junior" miner.
"For potential producers like ourselves there would be potential for investments from Indian groups, the same way there has been investment into Australian uranium from China, Japan and Canada," he told The Australian newspaper.
Last Friday's sudden jump in global uranium prices -- a surge of just under 10 percent -- was an even more significant symbolic development for the sector, Hall said..
Warwick Gregor, director of BGF Equities told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that production is already fully committed at the three uranium mines currently operational in Australia: BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam and Heathgate's Beverley Mine, both in South Australia, and ERA's Ranger in the Northern Territory.
Gillard's comments came ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to Australia Wednesday.
