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Uranium won't go through reef: Qld govt

The Queensland government says there are no plans to ship uranium out through the Great Barrier Reef, and such claims are a scare tactic.

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Source: AAP


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Any uranium mined in Queensland won't be shipped through the Great Barrier Reef, the state government says.

The government's uranium strategy was tabled in parliament on Thursday and conservationists have been calling on Queenslanders to help halt plans to transport the substance through the reef.

But Mines Minister Andrew Cripps says there are no plans to ship uranium through the state's ports and the activists are using scare tactics.

"This is typical of the conservation movement's scare tactics," he told the ABC on Friday.

"The document that we released yesterday makes it very clear that uranium commercially developed in Queensland won't be exported out of a port in Queensland.

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"It's most likely to go out of the port at Adelaide or Darwin."

Conservationists also pointed out that the international uranium market had been extremely weak since the Fukushima disaster of 2011.

Uranium mining was banned in Queensland in 1989 and the material hasn't actually been mined since 1982, but the state government lifted the longstanding moratorium last year.

Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter has welcomed the push to restart uranium mining in the state.

But he says the full benefits may be some way off.

Uranium mining would benefit northwest Queensland once uranium prices strengthened and could potentially identify copper deposits in the process, he said.


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