Our 53 16th March [1] and previous exchanges re uranium. [2] We
are proceeding with liquidation Mount Painter project and expect
that final report will be available in four or five weeks. Time
occupied in finalisation of report has been due to other heavy
calls upon scientific officers and to our desire to submit
documents as complete and detailed as possible.

In view of successes achieved in use of atomic bomb against Japan
we are most anxious to obtain sufficient information about uses of
uranium for defence and commercial purposes to enable us to
evaluate our resources and to determine whether any further work
should be undertaken.

Your 21 of 1st February [3] indicated that volume of production
likely to be derived from Mount Painter was insufficient to be of
value for purposes which United Kingdom had in mind, but it is
probable that smaller quantities of uranium than would be
attractive to United Kingdom would be useful to Australia both for
commercial and defence purposes. We might, therefore, be justified
in undertaking much more extensive exploratory and developmental
work on our own account.

While we appreciate that any details of processes or methods of
control probably cannot be disclosed to us at present, we feel
that sufficient information could be given us to determine whether
we should undertake a vigorous programme of exploration and
development. Little is known about our resources of uranium except
in limited area recently explored at Mount Painter and it is
possible that other deposits may exist in the Flinders Ranges
adjacent to Mount Painter or elsewhere.

CHIFLEY