PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) has welcomed calls by Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion that ati-uranium campaigners accept the state’s tightly controlled uranium industry.

Marmion said this week that the agreements reached during the Paris climate change summit would rightly drive further demand for lower carbon emission energy sources such as uranium.

"The fact is, the nuclear industry is here to stay and if uranium is unavailable from the country with the world’s biggest reserves, Australia, it will be sourced from other nations.

“So what would you prefer – a responsibly developed Western Australia industry with world-leading regulation, or more production in places with potentially poorer controls, and absolutely no benefits for Western Australian communities?,” the Minister said.

Marmion said uranium’s growing export potential, with recent nuclear deals between Australia and the United Arab Emirates and India, further vindicated the state government’s 2008 move to drop the ban on Western Australia’s uranium mines.

“We have helped lay the groundwork for an industry that could be worth A$1-billion dollars a year to Western Australia by 2020,” he said. “

“This has already seen more than A$300-million invested in uranium exploration and development, to the point where we are now positioned to reap the rewards, both for climate change and for our state’s development.”

Amec CEO Simon Bennison said on Friday that the industry body was pleased that the state government had the foresight to se the potential that uranium mining could provide to the state.

“The Western Australia uranium mining industry has the potential to generate much needed jobs across the state including local contractors and tradespeople from regional communities such as the Goldfields,” Bennison said.

He added that Amec would continue to work with certain Australian states to lift the ban on uranium mining to ensure they realise the benefits of Australia’s bilateral agreements and can provide sustainable energy into the future.