16 Minerals Council of Australia T op 10 2003 T op 10 2013 1 Australia 735000 Australia 1174000 2 Kazakhstan 530460 Canada 357000 3 United States 345000 Niger 325000 4 Ukraine 345000 Kazakhstan 285600 5 Canada 333834 Namibia 248200 6 South Africa 315330 Russian F ederation 216500 7 Namibia 170532 United States 207400 8 Mongolia 170532 South Africa 175300 9 Russian F ederation 143020 Brazil 155100 10 Niger 102227 China 120000 T otal 3190935 T otal 3264600 T able 2 Reasonably assured resources RAR tonnes at less than US130kgU Source OECD Nuclear Energy Agency NEA and the International Atomic Energy A gency IAEA 12 Australia maintained its top position across that period while Kazakhstan slipped from second into fourth position China and Brazil now rank in the top 10 at the expense of Ukraine and Mongolia T able 3 shows the ratio of the production share to the resources share for the top 10 uranium producers It is immediately apparent that by top 10 producer standards Australia is a signifcant under performer The Australian ratio of global production share to resources share is a mere 03353 That compares to 11779 average for the top 10 producers By contrast Kazakhstan has a production share to resources share ratio of 48979 Kazakhstan is in effect over exploiting its uranium resources Australia also under performs in its competitive position as shown by calculations of the location quotient The location quotient is a very simple tool employed in regional economic analysis 14 It is an index measure comparing a regional share of economic activity to an aggregate measure of that economic activity Location quotient is calculated 15 This measure provides an indication of whether Australian uranium production relative to Australian uranium resources has kept pace with world production relative to world uranium resources T able 4 shows the results of this exercise for the top 10 uranium resources countries in 2003 and 2013 A number equal to 1 means Australian uranium production relative to Australian uranium resources is keeping pace with world production and world uranium resources and a number less than 1 means it is not Australias share of production relative to resources fell dramatically over the period 2003 to 2013 This is partly due to the increase in Australian resources over that period and partly due to the lack of Australian production expansion in that time Australian uranium policy should be directed at changing this trend and capturing the benefts associated with greater uranium production in a world of growing uranium demand LQ Country productionCountry resources Global productionGlobal resources