Hi Everyone

It was a big week this week. ABC National Radio covered the push for uranium exploration in the Litchfield-Finniss region, specifically under the mineral title licence related to the petition.

Listen to the interview and read the article here - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-02/nt-uranium-company-uro-exploration-plans/101601024

A quick note about the article/interview, URO state in the article they "hoped any future projects it carried out in the region would "assist in the energy transition to renewable resources in an environmentally sustainable way"... and that they are "looking forward to discussing concerns with the community in the appropriate forum". We, the land owners in the area, have not heard form URO and their statement about 'renewable resources' does not take into account the extraction of uranium and lithium. These resources, just like coal, are not renewable.

In the article the Minerals Council's uranium forum chairman, Duncan Craig, said "the need to tackle climate change and that "the world is decarbonising," makes uranium important. He goes on to say "he believed Australia would have to reconsider its opposition to using nuclear power as it moved to reduce emissions and ensure it had a secure energy supply..." and that he "think what needs to occur is a bipartisan, and properly educated look, at the pros and cons of having nuclear power". Another discussion about decarbonising and reducing emissions that is only focused on the end point of uranium's use and not on the exploration and extraction process. There appears to be almost a deliberate omission of any discussion about the actual exploration and extraction of these non renewable resources and the environmental damage and contamination the exploration and extraction processes create.

In other news several of the land owners in the area received letters from the NT Titles Office stating that URO Corporation have revised their application for the mineral licence EL33285 and have excluded several freehold parcels of land from the licence area. This is a small but important win. Your signatures on the petition, sharing and boosting the petition as well as the individual submissions that some people were able to write were key in this positive outcome. Just over 20km2 of land (7.7 miles2) has now been excluded. The attached map shows the licence area in black outline. The excluded land is the light yellow area in the black outline. The areas in green are already granted exploration licences.

While this small win is great, there is still over 270 km2 of land (104 miles2) in the proposed licence area and all those green areas on the map surrounding Litchfield National Park. Our next step will be to write letters to the NT government about this. Stay tuned....

Thank you from the Friends of Litchfield-Finniss.

Check out our Facebook page for more information and events related to stopping the proliferation of mining, water extraction and fracking in the Litchfield-Finniss region, the Northern Territory and other areas of Australia. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086201771946