Czechs may prolong uranium mining beyond 2008

...Tuesday.

The Czechs have been gradually closing down uranium deposits since the end of Communism in 1989 as world demand dropped and the environmentally dangerous industry losing money.

However, the rally in uranium prices in the past years have made the sector economically viable again, the country's sole miner Diamo has said.

"The government will be deciding this year on prolonging mining, and I personally think that mining will be prolonged," Riman told an energy conference in Prague.

State-owned Diamo now gets 300 tonnes of uranium per year from its Dolni Rozinka mine, which has reserves in place to about 2012 and may have more, subject to exploration.

The company gets an additional 40 tonnes per year as the result of an environmental clean-up at the Straz pod Ralskem mine.

This makes the Czechs the seventh biggest world uranium supplier. Key customer is power firm CEZ and Germany's Urangesellschaft.

Diamo has also said that there were 115,000 tonnes of uranium at the northern Czech Hamr mine, on the same deposit as Ralsko, which had been closed but could potentially be reopened if it gets the nod from politicians.

The deposit is larger than the total of 110,000 tonnes of uranium mined in the country since 1945, including busy years when the Czechs supplied the Soviet Union.

The government decision this year is expected to be restricted to the Dolni Rozinka mine.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]