KAKADU: NORTHERN TERRITORY, AUSTRALIA
1) Kakadu is in northern Australia, 3000km from Sydney, it is on the north coast. It is south of Indonesia, 250km from Darwin. Kakadu is considered remote because most major cities are located in South East Australia, e.g. Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, or the South West Coast e.g. Perth.
2) Uranium Mining is one of the most important exports from Australia, it is important because it amounts to $500 million per year to Australia in exports, in the five years to mid 2005, Australia exported 46600 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate with a value of over $2.1 billion,
It provides power to Japan, USA, UK and France, it is 30% of Japans electricity, 21% of Usa’s energy, 20% of the UK’s and 77% of France’s energy,
This type of power is becoming vital as the worlds fossil fuel reserves are running out. Australia is a very important country in the debate because these countries rely on Australia to get hold of uranium, it holds 30% of the world’s uranium and with increasing demand, the prices will rise. This means the mines in Kakadu will too become increasingly important as it has uranium reserves worth and estimated $12 billion dollars over the next 25 years, if it were not to be sold; it is an estimated 94000 tonnes of uranium in Kakadu, which is enough to generate 20 times Australia’s current usage needs, this means whether they export it or not, the Australian government are in a strong position as fossil fuel reserves run out.
