PRIME MINISTER TONY
Abbott’s recent
signing of a Civil Nuclear Cooperation
Agreement with India leaves Australia as
a potential leading uranium supplier to
a country planning to meet up to 25 per
cent of its energy demand with nuclear
power by 2035.
Joining the Prime Minister’s business
delegation to India was Toro Energy’s
managing director Dr Vanessa Guthrie, who
is leading the company’s uranium interests.
Its flagship project, Wiluna, is set to be
Western Australia’s first uranium mine.
“Australia has a third of the world’s
known uranium resources yet supplies
only 11 per cent of the world’s supply,”
Guthrie tells
Resource People
from Toro’s
Perth headquarters.
“The nuclear cooperation agreement
really creates an opportunity for Australia
and Toro in particular to provide uranium
to emerging markets such as India and
China, which have aggressive nuclear
energy expansion programs underway.”
Guthrie has an extensive background in
TORO ENERGY POISED
for new uraniumage
Targeting emerging energy markets with Western Australia’s first uranium mine,
Toro Energy managing director Dr Vanessa Guthrie discusses the company’s
ambitious plans to make its mark on the Australian resource industry.
resources and when she talks about the
‘passion for mining’ that led her to become
Toro’s managing director in early 2013, it is
clear she is the right person for the job.
A career spanning 25 years has seen her
work across gold, copper, nickel, alumina,
oil and gas, or in her words ‘just about any
commodity you can think of’.
Guthrie’s tertiary qualifications in
geology and environment served her well
as she progressed to leadership roles
with recognised organisations such as
Woodside Energy and Alcoa, but it was the
PhD she completed on radioactive waste
disposal that sparked a genuine interest in
a sector she is now pursuing with gusto.
“When the opportunity came up to
join Toro it was a perfect storm for me. It
aligned with my technical, environmental,
and government and community relations
background which are all very important in
uranium,” she explains.
“Toro is a small company with a really
big vision to build Western Australia’s first
uranium mine and be a producer. I was
excited by that challenge.”
Located in the state’s mid-west, Toro’s
wholly-owned Wiluna project contains
approximately 76.5 million pounds of
uranium oxide capable of being mined for
20 to 25 years.
In 2013, Toro received final government
approvals to develop two of the project’s
six deposits, Centipede and Lake Way, and
have applied for approvals for another two
deposits, Lake Maitland and Millipede.
The company is now looking for a
financing partner for the $315m project while
Guthrie analyses the market to determine the
Australia has a third
of the world’s known
uranium resources yet
supplies only 11 per cent
of the world’s supply.
Toro’s Wiluna uranium
pilot test plant
Drilling takes
place at Wiluna
SUMMER 2014-15 RESOURCE
PEOPLE
|
|
LEADERSHIP
44
