Could state bans on Australian uranium mining be lifted?

Australia has world-leading uranium reserves but many deposits lay dormant. Credit: RHJPhtotos / Shutterstock

Uranium mining has more than 70 years of contentious history in Australia, reflected in complex state-level legislation in the form of absolute bans, exceptions for exploration or full approvals.

Advocates for uranium mining argue that lifting bans in more states would provide an economic boon for Australia given its extensive deposits and annual export revenues that have grown to A$1.2bn.

However, its detractors are vocal about the environmental, health and safety costs, questioning whether Australia’s already world-leading mining industry needs to pursue the radioactive material.

Concurrently, as Australia’s energy demands rise and the future of coal comes into question, discussions are gaining traction around the potential of nuclear – a power source fuelled by uranium.

MINE Australia examines where the deep divides surrounding uranium mining could lead the industry amid a federal election year and competitive global landscape.

Australian uranium is subject to varied legislation across six different states and two territories, alongside federal permits required for exports.

South Australia (SA) is the birthplace of full-scale uranium mining in the nation, dating back to the Radium Hill mine, which became operational in 1954 and produced approximately 970,000 tonnes (t) of ore before closing in 1961. 

Two decades later came the federal government’s first major policy on uranium mining. In 1984, the three-mine policy approved the Ranger and Nabarlek sites in the Northern Territory (NT) and SA’s Olympic Dam, while issuing a moratorium on any new approvals.

Conservation Council of Western Australia (WA) acting executive director Mia Pepper explains that when this policy was scrapped in 1996, “there was a huge amount of pressure from uranium companies to lift state bans, mostly on WA and Queensland because they have the largest uranium deposits”.

Today, only SA and NT allow uranium mining. Victoria has an outright ban, while Queensland and New South Wales only permit exploration, and there are currently no mining operations in the Australian Capital Territory. WA’s ban was reinstated for new uranium mines in 2017 but excluded four projects with previous approvals ─ Kintyre (Cameco), Mulga Rock (Deep Yellow), Wiluna (Toro Energy) and Yeelirrie (Cameco).

SA has four major projects, but Olympic Dam reigns supreme with the world’s largest estimated uranium reserves of 295.3 kilotonnes. The underground mine, which also has copper, gold and nickel, was acquired by BHP in 2005 and is currently undergoing expansion.

WA is a focal point in the uranium debate given the state’s dominance in mining. In 2024, a report by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia found that WA could produce uranium worth more than A$1bn a year.

Cauldron Energy CEO Jonathan Fisher, a vocal proponent of uranium mining, asserts that “WA has the best mining legislation in the world. Including uranium would perfect it.” Cauldron Energy has 100% ownership of the Yanrey uranium project in WA, the development of which is blocked under the state’s current ban. Fisher confirms that exploration is continuing.

Such projects demonstrate the changes Australian miners must navigate at both state and national levels, particularly in the case of uranium.

State elections are held every four years, the most recent being WA’s in early March. Pepper confirms that “the Labor Party who are opposed to uranium mining won very clearly with a strong mandate. We don't think there is any appetite within the party to remove the ban.”

The federal election on 2 May saw the Labor Government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese retain power, putting to bed the Liberals' plans to build seven nuclear plants across Australia, which would have required hundreds of tonnes of uranium annually.

For Fisher, the association of nuclear power with uranium mining is “a distraction. The core of our business is always the export of uranium."

Amid complex legislation and heated debates, what remains undeniable is Australia’s world-leading uranium reserves, which make up 27.7% of the global total.

Australia’s closest competitor is Kazakhstan. While the country has just under half of Australia’s reserves (13.4%), it continues to be the world's largest uranium producer, accounting for 38.1% of the global supply in 2024, according to MINE Australia’s parent company GlobalData.

Fisher highlights that WA legislation informed the development of Kazakhstan’s mining industry, as in 2017 the nation adopted WA’s ‘first come, first served’ licensing mechanism for solid minerals and code for subsoil use.

While there is knowledge-sharing and investment deals between the countries, competition is also high, led by the output of state-owned Kazatomprom, which counterbalances stocks in Australian uranium miners. Additionally, Kazakhstan’s parliament is pushing through legislation that would nationalise its uranium sector, further accelerating production, while many Australian deposits remain dormant.

“We can be globally competitive,” asserts Fisher. “A good chunk of Australian uranium is in-situ recovery and cost-competitive because a lot of it is near the surface and relatively simple to mine. We should be producing a lot more.”

Currently, Australia exports approximately 8% of global uranium. Kirsty Braybon, adjunct nuclear law lecturer at the University of Adelaide, comments that “the world is itching for more”. With current prices, it would be economical to lift bans, she adds, “not least because Australia’s roads, schools and hospitals are built off the back of mining profits”.

Much of the pro-uranium argument concerns the future of Australian mining. The World Nuclear Association estimates that the uranium industry employs 1,400 workers nationally. 

In the case of WA, Fisher adds that the uranium sector could supply 10,000 jobs in the state alone, which has a large mining workforce and where iron ore mining is on the decline and development of lithium and nickel projects has been problematic.

There appears to be public support for this in WA. According to a recent poll by the Association of Mining and Extraction Companies, 57% of respondents voted in favour of lifting the state’s uranium ban.

Just as the sheer amount of Australia’s deposits are undeniable, so too is uranium mining’s poor environmental, social and governance record.

A key example is the Rum Jungle copper-uranium mine in NT, which produced uranium for nuclear weapons between 1954 and 1971. The collapse of its tailings dam resulted in the acidification of the nearby Finniss River, and continues to pollute the surrounding area.

Since 2009, the Australian and NT governments have partnered to rehabilitate the site, which is currently in stage three of implementation, with the entire process expected to take 15 years. Public records show that up until 2022 the project had received almost A$32m in federal funding, but since then information on the costs has been restricted.

Another major rehabilitation project is being undertaken by Rio Tinto at the Ranger uranium mine in NT at an estimated cost of A$2.2bn. Since its closure in 2021, Australian uranium production has fallen by 20%, according to independent critical minerals expert Dr Gavin Mudd. 

Proper tailings management is a recurrent point within the uranium debate. The Minerals Council of Australia, which supports uranium mining, states that “serious environmental and safety consequences can occur if tailings storage facilities fail” but this is “not exceptional in the case of uranium”.

Another aspect of the uranium mining industry is its proximity to indigenous lands and communities. A major dispute over the Jabiluka site between Energy Resources Australia, which is majority-owned by Rio Tinto, and the Mirrar people continued for just over three decades before the NT government blocked further mining activity on the site in 2024.

Braybon explains that “some indigenous groups support it [uranium mining] through agreements with mining companies, while others oppose it outright”. She cites Alligator Energy’s deal with the Barngarla group for the Samphire site, which is on track to be SA’s newest uranium mine.

Perceptions of uranium mining by the general public and indigenous groups seemingly mirror the stark differences in state legislation – and this divisiveness appears unlikely to disappear.

Both sides of the uranium mining debate appear equally confident that state bans will prevail or be lifted.

“Australia’s uranium future looks grim,” Mudd tells MINE Australia. “It is almost entirely linked to the future of Olympic Dam – any other production will be minor and rather boutique in scale,” he says, referencing SA’s other uranium projects, Four Mile, Beverley and Honeymoon, the latter of which resumed operations in 2024 after a decade-long hiatus.

Pepper concurs that Olympic Dam is the industry’s north star. “At some point in the future, we will just have Olympic Dam, which will survive any uranium price issues because it is also a copper, silver and gold mine – but I don't see a future for uranium mines alone in Australia.”

In the case of WA, Pepper adds “in a state which is abundant in resources, we have the privilege to pick and choose which ones we mine. Uranium is a mineral we just do not need.”

Industry appetite remains, with the federal government’s quarterly energy and resources update for March 2025 showing that annual uranium exploration expenditure was up 53%.

However, GlobalData forecasts that Australia’s uranium output is expected to decline by 8.3% from 7,200t in 2029 to 6,600t by 2030, due in large part to the scheduled closure of the Four Mile mine.

Fisher is steadfast in his optimism. “Everyone knows the bans will be lifted. Australia is the best mining jurisdiction in the world and our strategic partners need uranium.”

Both Fisher and Braybon reference the importance of the trilateral Australia-UK-US partnership on nuclear-powered submarines, which was signed in 2024, in pushing for uranium mining approvals. This agreement was backed by both the Labor and Liberal National parties, leading Braybon to predict that uranium will also eventually become a bipartisan issue.

As for uranium mining’s future in Australia, this remains uncertain. “Given the revolution for renewables and battery storage, plus the lack of reality for any nuclear power programme in Australia, it seems extraordinarily unlikely that bans will be removed,” asserts Mudd.