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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (17460)	4/9/2008 4:42:08 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 194042

Aurora shares hit by Labrador uranium mining ban Wed Apr 9, 12:42 PM ca.news.finance.yahoo.com TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of Aurora Energy Resources Inc recovered a bit on Wednesday after plunging on Tuesday in reaction to a decision by the Inuit government in Labrador, on Canada's East Coast, to halt uranium mining for three years. On Wednesday the company and analysts downplayed the long-term impact of a 8-7 vote by Labrador's Nunatsiavut assembly to impose a uranium mining moratorium, partly due to health concerns. Shares of Aurora -- whose Michelin uranium project in Labrador is slated to start production in about five years -- plunged more than 33 percent on the news, but recovered about a third of those losses on Wednesday. The stock was up 42 Canadian cents, or 12 percent, at C$3.92 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Shares of Fronteer Development Group , Aurora's controlling shareholder, dropped 8.3 percent on Tuesday but bounced back by 6.8 percent, or 33 Canadian cents, to C$5.17 on Wednesday. George Topping, an analyst at Blackmont Capital, said he was surprised at the extent of the selloff given Aurora hadn't planned to produce uranium from Michelin until the second half of 2013. "The moratorium does not preclude exploration or, we believe, environmental permitting work," Topping wrote in a research note. "So, theoretically, it may not materially impact our ... production assumption." Ministers of the Nunatsiavut government, which was created in 2005 in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, were not immediately available to comment. Vancouver, British Columbia-based Aurora, whose Jacques Lake project is also located on Inuit land in Labrador, said it is committed to working with the regional government and plans to conduct an infill drill program at the Michelin and Jacques Lake deposits. Michelin contains 67.4 million pounds of measured and indicated U3O8 uranium, while Jacques Lake contains 10.4 million pounds, according to Aurora's Web site. The company noted it is not currently mining for the radioactive material in areas covered by the ban, but that it will continue with a pre-feasibility study on Michelin. "We strongly believe that we can demonstrate to the Nunatsiavut government that uranium mining can be safely carried out," the company said in a statement. Blackmont's Topping said the weakness in Fronteer's sharesmay attract the interest of bigger miners such as Teck Cominco Ltd "that can better withstand the lengthy permitting process." The shares of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Teck, which has a gold joint-venture with Fronteer in Turkey, were down C$1.04, or 2.2 percent, at C$47.41 midway through the session. ($1=$1.02 Canadian) (Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Peter Galloway)