Wide variety of companies make up uranium industry

Uranium companies cover a wide spectrum.

The industry includes small, Australian-owned exploration companies with a handful of employees; subsidiaries of large international companies; large and medium-sized Australian companies with uranium mines and projects overseas, and mining companies of world significance operating some of the largest uranium mines in the world.

In Australia, the industry produces uranium entirely for export. Uranium is exported under a framework of anti- nuclear weapons proliferation safeguards and strict health, safety and environmental regulations.

Uranium exploration and mining companies do business within a complex, multi-layered regulatory system administered at the Federal, State and local levels.

Mostly, the uranium industry is like other export-oriented resource industries. Its exploration, mining, processing and transport methods are largely the same as those used in other sectors.

One of uranium’s properties, its low-level radioactivity, is subject to unique regulation. Uranium’s radioactivity often attracts more strict regulation of uranium mining than other types of resource recovery.

Volumes of uranium exports are relatively small. The industry ships around 10,000 tonnes of uranium oxide to customer countries each year. Uranium is shipped through the Ports of Darwin and Adelaide.