a Media Department  of Trade and  Resources.  U 7URANIUM - RANGER DIVESTMENT(Statement by the Deputy Prime Minister andMinister for Trade and Resources, the Rt Hon ,  .  J.D. Anthony, M.P.)The Commonwealth Government has announced that it proposes to divest of its interests in the Ranger uranium project to Energy Resources of Australia (ERA). Negotiations in that regard are well advanced.Concurrently, ERA is also well advanced with negotiations with its prospective overseas equity holders,  which are expected to bring with them to the project significant sales contracts.In the course of these negotiations, legal counsel acting for some of the commercial parties involved have queried whether once the Government has assigned its Ranger interests to ERA, future operations at Ranger would be "on behalf of the Commonwealth," as required by the existing Authority issued pursuant to section 41 of the Atomic Energy Act to the present joint venturers.The Government has examined the matter and decided that legislation* should be prepared to amend the Atomic Energy Act to put the matter beyond doubt,  so that operations at Ranger will continue clearly to be "on behalf of the Commonwealth."Canberra 10 August, 1980

