A move to strengthen Australia’s uranium export relationship with India is great news for the sector and a prompt to jurisdictions with uranium mining bans that it is time for change, according to the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies.

Visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Australia’s uranium reserves as critical to his country’s energy plans.

Mr Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today signed an administrative arrangement to enable uranium exports to India for peaceful purposes under the 2015 Australia–India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

India is targeting 100GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047 and plans to add 18 more nuclear reactors to its energy mix by 2032.

AMEC chief executive officer Warren Pearce said Australia was ideally placed to help meet global demand for uranium.

“India’s nuclear energy expansion is exactly the type of opportunity Australia is positioned to capitalise on,” he said.

This opportunity should also prompt a renewed focus on policy settings across Australian jurisdictions, Mr Pearce said.

“South Australia and the Northern Territory continue to show that uranium can be responsibly mined under strong regulatory frameworks. In doing so it provides valuable jobs and royalties for the state,” he said.

“For too long, uranium has been held back by policy uncertainty and outdated restrictions in parts of Australia.”

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive officer Tania Constable said the opportunity to supply a potentially immense Indian nuclear generation program would add further impetus to overturn outdated and ideologically driven bans on uranium mining. 

“This includes state mining bans in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia and archaic federal laws which are not based on sound science,” she said. 

“Australia should be given every opportunity to grow its already strong minerals trade with India in coal and gold by backing our uranium miners to help deliver reliable, zero-emissions energy.”

The MCA estimates that based on 1GW of nuclear power generation requiring about 225 tonnes of uranium per year, if India reaches its 100GW nuclear target by 2047 its nuclear power fleet could require about 23,000 tonnes of uranium each year.

“Even if only half that target is achieved, annual uranium requirements would be roughly 11,000 tonnes, almost double Australia’s current forecast uranium export volumes of 6471 tonnes in 2025-26,” she said.

“With almost 30 per cent of global uranium resources, Australia is perfectly positioned to meet this challenge if we can lift our output above our current ranking of fourth place in global production.”