Australia may ban uranium sales as part of further sanctions against Russia

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Image credit: flickr user Aaron Booth

Australia is threatening to extend sanctions against Russia to include uranium sales after Moscow imposed its own sanctions on the West.

Australia may ban uranium sales as part of further sanctions against Russia
Image credit: flickr user Aaron Booth

According to The Guardian, Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed that the Government was considering banning uranium sales to Moscow in line with another spiral of broadening western sanctions against Russia.

“We are considering what other action we can sensibly take in terms of further increasing the level of sanctions imposed on Russia and all these matters … will be part of a proper and considered discussion before we make a decision,” Cormann said.

Yuri Murashko, head of the press service of the Priargunsky Industrial Mining and Chemical Union, told ITAR-TASS on Monday that managers of Russia’s biggest uranium production plant based in the Baikal region have interpreted Australia’s warning that it might stop uranium deliveries to Russia as “strange”.

“Threats to ban uranium ore deliveries to Russia is as strange as banning oil, gas or coal deliveries. Russia has enough resources of its own. This year Russia has additionally begun developing the Streltsov ore deposit in the south-east of the Baikal region, which belongs to the biggest group of uranium and molybdenum deposits in Russia,” Mr Murashko said.

Adertisement

“According to preliminary estimates, this field has proved positive for at least 16 perspective ore deposits. Given modern development technologies, the overall stock in the Streltsov field is enough to last for 250 years at the least.”

The Priargunsky mining and chemical enterprise is one of the biggest ore producers in the world. In 2013, its output was estimated at more than 2,000 tons, which was a 6.49% increase in production since the previous year.