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

To: LoneClone who wrote (19419)	5/12/2008 10:58:25 AM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 195066

Inco to Resume Exploration for Uranium in New Brunswick By The Canadian Press 09 May 2008 at 07:51 AM GMT-04:00 resourceinvestor.com MONCTON, N.B. (CP) -- Vale Inco [NYSE:RIO] will resume its exploration for uranium in southeastern New Brunswick next week by drilling at an undisclosed site 20 kilometres from Moncton, N.B., a company official said Thursday. Spokesman Cory McPhee would not reveal where the drilling will take place, but said it would be on Crown land and not near the Turtle Creek watershed, which supplies Moncton's drinking water. Inco, a Toronto-based mining corporation that was bought out by Brazil’s Vale in 2006 with net sales of more than C$8 billion last year, is one of four companies exploring for uranium in New Brunswick. Yvonne Devine, president of the southeast chapter of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, said the organization will be watching for the drill trucks next week. Inco signed a five-year agreement with the province last year for the exploration of uranium on about 133,000 hectares of land. The area for exploration must be cut in half by June 1, according to the agreement. Inco paid the province C$700,000 for the first year of exploration. Exploration began last year based on previous geological surveys, some of the dating back to the 1970s, McPhee said. The current “energy crisis” combined with increased worldwide demand for uranium prompted renewed interest in New Brunswick's potential, he added. Also, prices from uranium have increased sharply in recent months. Inco identified two sprawling areas for exploration - one known as the Sussex project and the other as the Caledonia project, which included the contentious Turtle Creek watershed in Albert County. The company began with basic site inspections, which included soil sampling and it led to diamond drilling, 250 metres deep, to get core samples. “The fact of mineral exploration is that it is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said. “Exploration does not mean the inevitability of a mine. A lot of things have to go right between the time of starting exploration and the opening of a mine.” Landowners have 60 days to appeal and prevent exploration companies from drilling. The Conservation Council said only farmers, golf course owners and cemeteries are exempt from drilling regulations. The Conservation Council said landowners have been up to C$1,000 per drill hole by mining companies. McPhee said all drilling is done in an environmentally friendly way. “We cap the hole, rehabilitate the site to its original state and move on,” he said. The provincial government is holding public information sessions next month in Fredericton and Moncton.