Uranium-exploration permit returned to state board

By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, April 05, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

A judge has returned a uranium-exploration permit to the state Board of Minerals and Environment so the board can consider accurate archeological data.

Seventh Circuit Judge Jack Delaney said his ruling was "kind of a slam dunk."

But Delaney rejected, at least for now, a request by Defenders of the Black Hills for a temporary injunction to stop the exploration.

Still, Charmaine White Face of Rapid City, a founder of Defenders of the Black Hills, said she was pleased with the ruling. "I'm glad we get to do the archeology properly," she said.

Powertech Uranium Corp. had received a permit to drill about 155 exploration holes northwest of Edgemont in search of an estimated 7.6 million pounds of uranium ore, or yellowcake.

The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources asked Delaney to return the permit after the department discovered than an "administrative error" sent the state archeologist to the wrong site.

The archeologist has since surveyed the correct site, which is northwest of Edgemont in the Dewey and Burdock area.

The new hearing will be at 10 a.m. CDT Thursday, April 19, at DENR headquarters in Pierre.

Defenders of the Black Hills is challenging the entire exploration permit, and Delaney said the group could still challenge the amended permit, if the Board of Minerals and Environment approves it April 19.

Powertech attorney Max Main of Belle Fourche said after the hearing that Powertech already had decided not to begin exploration until the permit is properly issued.

Powertech's permit is the first permit for uranium exploration in the Black Hills in decades. High uranium prices, driven partly by concern about international oil supplies, have led to a boom in uranium exploration throughout the West.

There are old uranium mines throughout the Edgemont area in the extreme southwest corner of the Black Hills.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com