Aha, die Chinesen sind auch schon drin.
War mir neu.......
http://www.news.com.au/sundaymail/story/0,,21051691-3122,00.…
China's uranium rushMandi Zonneveldt
January 12, 2007 11:00pm
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CHINA'S rush on a rich uranium prospect in the Northern Territory has signalled the start of a second wave.
The NT Government confirmed this week that six Chinese companies were among more than 40 vying for a licence to explore the Pamela and Angela uranium prospects south of Alice Springs.
Chinese investment in Australian resources is by no means new. For 20 years, the Chinese have quietly staked their claim on Australia's iron ore reserves.
But a new vigour has emerged, marked by heightened activity at the junior end of the iron ore sector last year. And uranium appears to be the next target.
If any one of the Chinese companies is successful, Pamela and Angela will be the first uranium project in Australia wholly owned by the Chinese.
China first signalled its interest in Australia's vast uranium reserves last year, when the Chinese government-owned SinoSteel Corporation paid $40 million for a 60 per cent stake in two outback South Australian projects owned by PepinNini minerals.
CITIC, another state-owned Chinese behemoth, which is known to have considered a bid for WMC Resources and its Olympic Dam mine, has since built stakes in uranium explorers
Marathon Resources and Southern Gold. It also has a stake in Queensland miner Macarthur Coal.CITIC was the first Chinese company to invest here, taking a 10 per cent stake in the Portland Aluminium smelter in 1986.
China's Ministry of Metallurgical Industry (now SinoSteel) followed in 1987 with the $420 million Channar iron ore joint venture.
Melbourne lawyer Robin Chambers, former general counsel for CRA (now Rio Tinto), represented the Chinese Government in the negotiations with Hamersley Iron, which have set the stage for the new wave of investment.
He said a key issue was whether to have a long-term contract or form a joint venture.
CITIC turned a $17.9 million profit from its stake in the Portland smelter (now 22.5 per cent). It also made $12 million from its direct stake in Macarthur Coal's Coppabella mine.
Yancoal, a subsidiary of China's largest coalminer Yanzhou Coal, is expected to turn a profit this year following its revival of the Southland colliery in the Hunter Valley – a wholly owned venture.
Chinese oil giant CNOOC will also start reaping rewards this year from its 25 per cent stake in the China LNG joint venture, formed as part of a $25 billion deal to sell gas from the North- West Shelf to China. And in northwest Queensland Chalco is working out the feasibility of mining bauxite at Aurukun.
Figures on the extent of Chinese investment are hard to come by. In 2004-05, the Foreign Investment Review Board approved 39 applications from China to invest in the mineral exploration and development industries.
FIRB has not yet published figures for 2005-06.
At December 31, 2004, Chinese investment in Australia totalled $1.98 billion, but the Australian Bureau of Statistics no longer releases figures on Chinese direct investment "for confidentiality reasons".
Chalco has since lodged a bid to develop a $3 billion bauxite mine on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland.
Chinese companies have also agreed to invest more than $2 billion in iron ore projects, mostly in Western Australia.