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Mining giant BHP Billiton is risking the lives of its staff and employees at Olympic Dam in South Australia by exposing them to unsafe levels of radiation, according to a company whistleblower. Documents received by The Independent Weekly say BHP Billiton has been warned about the risks, and has chosen to take no action. The documents show BHP Billiton uses manipulated averages and distorted sampling to ensure its "official" figures slip under the maximum exposure levels set by government. But experts have warned exposure levels currently regarded as the international limit should be lowered, following the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London four years ago."

Uranium Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ: URRE) ("URI" or the "Company") announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement with BHP Billiton to acquire 100% of the ownership of Rio Algom Mining LLC ("Rio Algom"). Under the agreement, URI will pay BHP Billiton $110 million in cash and assume certain retirement benefits and reclamation liabilities of which up to $35 million will be pre-funded at closing. URI will also pay BHP Billiton $16.5 million contingent upon the receipt of a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct and operate a conventional uranium mill. The transaction is expected to close on or before June 1, 2008 and is subject to customary closing conditions, financing and regulatory approvals.

The world's biggest mining company BHP Billiton said Wednesday it intended to supply uranium to China for decades to come as the Asian superpower ramps up its nuclear energy programme. The chief executive of the Anglo-Australian miner, Marius Kloppers, said BHP Billiton was "very actively positioning" to take advantage of China's move towards greater use of nuclear energy.

BHP Billiton says it has cleaned up the site of a radioactive waste leak at its Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia. Green groups have released photos they say were taken by a mine worker in December 2008, showing a clean-up operation outside a tailings dam. The mining company says it notified the State Government and the Environment Protection Authority at the time.

Uranium will rise above $50 a pound in coming weeks because of reduced production at BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Olympic Dam mine in Australia, Macquarie Bank Ltd. said. Prices have added 9.8 percent over the past two weeks on concern about reduced supply following an accident at Olympic Dam, the world's fourth-largest producing uranium mine. Uranium oxide concentrate for immediate delivery traded at $47.75 a pound on Oct. 19, Roswell, Georgia-based UxC said in a weekly report. "Uranium will go up into the low $50s over the next month," Max Layton, an analyst at Macquarie in London, said by phone today.

Uranium will rise above $50 a pound in coming weeks because of reduced production at BHP Billiton Ltd.'s Olympic Dam mine in Australia, Macquarie Bank Ltd. said. Prices have added 9.8 percent over the past two weeks on concern about reduced supply following an accident at Olympic Dam, the world's fourth-largest producing uranium mine. Uranium oxide concentrate for immediate delivery traded at $47.75 a pound on Oct. 19, Roswell, Georgia-based UxC said in a weekly report. "Uranium will go up into the low $50s over the next month," Max Layton, an analyst at Macquarie in London, said by phone today.

"A whistleblower has accused Olympic Dam of exposing its workers to dangerous radiation levels - a claim BHP Billiton has denied. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has backed the company, saying it was not an issue. But Greens MP Mark Parnell says the levels of polonium-210 are above the company's health standards and the whistleblower told him workers are being put at risk, with too few safeguards at Olympic Dam. Mr Parnell said the substance was a dangerous toxic by-product of uranium production that could kill an 80 kilogram person with one microgram."

West Australian Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore is under increasing pressure to resign from his portfolio over shares held by his wife in mining companies BHP Billiton and Woodside Petroleum. Mr Moore, the government leader in the upper house, is the second minister to face claims of a conflict of interest since his appointment to the ministry in September.

An environment group says a BHP Billiton proposal to transport uranium yellowcake through the Northern Territory should be reconsidered in light of a train derailment near Katherine. Four carriages left the tracks west of Katherine yesterday and investigators are trying to determine the cause. Justin Tutty from the No Waste Alliance says BHP's proposal would see a trainload of radioactive material a day on the same rail line.

BHP Billiton says any increase in the amount of uranium being transported through the Northern Territory would not create problems, but an environmental lobby group is not so sure. BHP currently produces about 4,000 tonnes of uranium a year from its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia. About a quarter of that is taken by train to the Port of Darwin.

The Yeelirrie uranium project in Western Australia has been reactivated after BHP Billiton applied to the federal government to commence a new process of environmental approval. Yeelirrie is about 420 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and close to the Goldfields gas pipeline. The deposit was discovered by Western Mining (WMC) in 1972 and found to extend over an area of 9 km x 1.5 km, is up to seven metres thick and has an average depth of about seven metres of overburden. Old published figures show some 52,000 tonnes of uranium oxide at 0.15% average grade, and considerable metallurgical work was done before a new federal Labor government killed the project in 1983. The uranium mineralisation is carnotite (hydrated potassium uranium vanadium oxide).

Mining giant BHP Billiton says plans to increase the amount of radioactive material it sends to Darwin by rail will not be a risk to public health. The company wants to freight about 1.6 million tonnes of radioactive copper concentrate to Darwin each year if its proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam in South Australia gets the green light.

"BHP Billiton documents have revealed the company's proposed $17 billion Yeelirrie uranium mine could threaten vulnerable animal species previously found in the area. The resource giant's preliminary environmental report for what may be Australia's first major uranium mine in 20 years also details risks to the area's groundwater-dependent ecosystems because of possible changes to water flow and a reduced groundwater recharge. A desktop review of data dealing with the area, south east of Leonora, indicated 285 vertebrate fauna species potentially occur in the project zone. Thirty-two species are labelled of "conservation significance", with 10 vulnerable species including the bilby, black-flanked rock wallaby, shield-back trapdoor spider, mallee fowl and princess parrot."

"BHP Billiton says it will step up security at an old uranium testing site in Kalgoorlie after concerns children are accessing the area. Labor's candidate for the federal seat of O'Connor, Ian Bishop, says damage to a security gate has allowed children to enter the site at Hannan's north on dirt bikes. More than 5,000 tonnes of tailings from the Yeelirrie uranium deposit, near Wiluna, were buried in the area after BHP stopped testing ore-processing there in the 1980s."

SYDNEY - BHP Billiton Ltd says it wants to develop one of Australia's largest untapped uranium deposits, after the state government where the deposit is located lifted a ban on mining the nuclear power feedstock. The 10-kilometre-long (6 miles) Yeelirrie deposit, located about 1,000 km north of Perth in west Australia, is estimated to contain about 52,000 tonnes of uranium. That's 7 percent more than total world production last year, according to figures from the World Nuclear Association.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A Texas mining company - blaming sliding uranium prices and the difficulty of getting financing - on Thursday backed out of a deal that could have led to the first uranium mill in the Grants area in two decades. Uranium Resources Inc. agreed last Oct. 12 to buy Rio Algom Mining LLC, based in Oklahoma City, from Australian mining company BHP Billiton Ltd.

A plan to transport more radioactive material on the Northern Territory's rail network is a recipe for disaster, a Darwin-based anti-uranium campaigner says. BHP Billiton will hold a public meeting in Darwin tonight to outline the environmental impacts of its plans to expand the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia. The company wants to freight 1.6 million tonnes of concentrate to Darwin each year, while also increasing the amount of uranium oxide it already sends north by rail.

It is said that all that glitters is not gold. Keep that in mind when considering the bidding war heating up the nuclear power business. France's EDF has offered $6.5 billion for half of Constellation Energy Group's nuclear business and some other assets, trumping Warren Buffett's bid of $4.7 billion for all of Constellation. If plummeting demand for everything from new cars to tin foil could fell BHP's monster bid for Rio Tinto, why wouldn't it weigh on demand for energy? While nuclear power has regained some favor as a cheap, relatively clean alternative to nasty fossil fuels, is it really safe to expect consumers to ramp up electric heat this winter, and air conditioning next summer, when they are worried about losing their jobs?