Energy Resources of Australia has received written approval for a progressive restart of processing operations from the Northern Territory Department of Mines and Energy and the Commonwealth Minister for Industry.
ERA is now in receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals to resume processing operations at the Ranger mine.  The progressive restart of processing operations will commence on 5 June 2014.
Today's approval to recommence processing operations follows investigations conducted by Northern Territory and Commonwealth regulators into the integrity of the Ranger processing plant and related maintenance and safety systems.  ERA has co-operated fully with these investigations and with the Government-appointed taskforce charged with overseeing the regulatory response to the leach tank incident.
In parallel with the regulatory investigations, ERA commissioned independent investigations into the root cause of the failure of Leach Tank 1 and the integrity and maintenance of the Ranger processing plant.  The findings of these investigations formed the basis of ERA's restart readiness plan which was approved by the ERA Board and announced on 9 April 2014.
Welcoming the approval of a restart, ERA's Chief Executive, Andrea Sutton, said: "We acknowledge that this was a serious incident that damaged community confidence in our operations.  We recognise that an important aspect of the recovery from this incident will be restoration of that confidence in our processing operations.
"To achieve that outcome we undertook an extensive review of the integrity of the plant's equipment, our maintenance and inspection plans and we also reviewed plant process safety.
"We have also co-operated with the government-appointed taskforce to support its objective of a rigorous, thorough investigation.
"The measures we have undertaken are designed to prevent anything similar happening in the future and to reassure our stakeholders and the broader community of the integrity of our operation.
"We expect the processing plant to return to normal production levels during the third quarter of this year. ERA will continue to work closely with the government and our stakeholders as we progressively increase our production."
With the progressive restart of processing operations to occur throughout the second and third quarters of 2014, ERA's 2014 production of uranium oxide is expected to be between 1,100 tonnes and 1,500 tonnes.
ERA's first half earnings will be impacted by the additional costs associated with the suspension of processing operations and the Company today provided earnings guidance of a loss of between $120 million and $140 million for the first half of 2014.

Media Release - Ranger Processing Plant Restart Approved

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