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Continued from yesterday’s story on the Daly River.

An election is held annually for the prestigious position of Mayor of the Daly River. All the local landholders, ringers, contractors and any others would crowd into the Daly River Hotel and vote. Names would be written on a piece of paper and thrown into a hat. Mostly they were one single name on many pieces of paper. The winner became the mayor for one year. To inaugurate, the winner must shout the bar three times.


Uranium exploration along East Alligator River 1972.

I flew to an old and now abandoned uranium mine in the Northern Territory, named El Sharana, east of Pine Creek. It was a small perimeter hole and very deep. The Poms had dug it in the 1950’s and had built a small town very near. I have looked on the internet for the town and mine but don’t see it any more. Some years back the names of many place names were changed to Aboriginal names and I guess El Sharana is clearly not an Aboriginal name thus it went by the wayside. The local area name was also changed from Arnhem Land to Kakadu.
I was flying geologists to various points in low lying flood areas of the East Alligator river. Three lots of two and picking them up in the avo. The first day I dropped them off and returned back to their base I was up tight. Will I find them this avo? It’s featureless out there and they were a fair way out. Of course there was no navigation aids let alone GPS.I hadn’t even taken a compass heading and flight time.
Well what happened? I found them all and what a relief. One of them reflected the late afternoon sun off the back of their watch. What good thinking.
I did the same thing each day for a week and it wasn’t that difficult at all. I was fairly experienced at bush operations.
I remember the dining room at camp. The store in particular. A python snake was in residence. The blokes had it by the tail and had about 12 foot of it pulled out from under the shelves. It was holding on tight. I was a bit timid about it but the blokes said it kept the rodents out and for that he was not unwelcome.
Uranium. A recourse is the amount of product which is thought to exist and it may not be proven. A reserve is a known quantity and can be economically mined.
Countries with the biggest resource are, in order, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Canada.
Countries with the biggest reserves are, in order, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia.
Biggest producers are, again in order, Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. Kazakhstan produces 24K tons, Canada half of that and Australia one quarter of that.
Uranium.Mining, producing, enriching, using and disposing is an emotive subject here in Australia. Whilst I have an opinion I will contain it. But I do have an opinion on most things and for that I am popular in varying degrees some extreme.