Uranium cargo mooted for Adelaide-Darwin rail

<p>FreightLink and the port of Darwin will undertake a three-month trial uranium shipment from WMC Resources in South Australia if the proposal receives the necessary government approval.</p> <p>WMC Resources spokesman Richard Yeeles told <em>Lloyd’s List DCN</em> that the company hoped to start the trial early next year if it obtained the necessary approvals from the federal, South Australian and Northern Territory governments.</p> <p>The plan is to send about 20 containers of uranium from the Olympic Dam mine to Darwin via the Adelaide-Darwin railway over a three-month period, Mr Yeeles said.</p> <p>The uranium would then be shipped out of Darwin to North America, he said.</p> <p>Since the mine opened in 1998, WMC Resources has only shipped uranium out of Adelaide and it now wants explore other shipping options, he said.</p> <p>"It’s flexibility and it’s the assurance that we have got more than one port we can use," Mr Yeeles said. </p> <p>Olympic Dam produces about 4,000 tonnes of uranium a year, extracted from ore containing copper, uranium, gold and silver.</p> <p>The mine also produces up to 200,000 tonnes of copper a year.</p> <br />