Numerous hits this morning from US local and financial media...

Numerous hits this morning from US local and financial media about our current efforts in North Dakota, effectively regurgitating the article below.

While I was initially concerned that there was not a great deal of U308 activity in North Dakota, it appears that PMH is receiving good gvt/public support and that the State is taking active steps to review U308 mining regulations.

I particularly like the comment from the State geologist stating "rules are being crafted to address uranium mining that would use in-situ recovery technology".

So ya, near production could well be correct assuming the results confirm the preliminary and historical data.

Exploratory drilling for uranium under way in N.D.
Jul 04, 2008 - 04:05:59 CDT
By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press Writer

(http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2008/07/04/news/state/159391.txt)

An Australian company has started exploratory drilling for uranium in southwest North Dakota, the first search for the radioactive element in the state in three decades.

Formation Resources Inc. of Bismarck, a newly formed unit of PacMag Metals Ltd. of West Perth, Australia, was granted a state permit in April to drill about 600 test holes in southeastern Billings County and north-central Slope County.

Ed Murphy, the state geologist, said the eight-square-mile area is near the old Fritz Mine, which produced uranium in the 1960s.

About 150 test holes have been drilled in the past two weeks at depths of up to 150 feet, said Jim Guilinger, president of Arvada, Colo.-based World Industrial Minerals. Guilinger said his company is a consultant for PacMag Metals and Formation Resources.

The company posted a $98,290 cash bond as a condition of the drilling permit, Murphy said.

Guilinger said the crew of about nine men and one rig will resume drilling July 12. All the 610 test holes are being drilled on private land, he said.

Results so far have been positive for uranium and molybdenum, a substance used to harden steel.

"We're interested enough to keep on drilling," Guilinger said Thursday.

PacMag Metals refers to the uranium-molybdenum drilling as the "Sentinel Project."

"The new Sentinel Project provides an exciting near-term development play, which can easily be tested by shallow drilling," the company's Web site said.

Guilinger said the company will not decide if it will begin mining in the area until the test drilling is completed and the core samples are tested.

"It will be well into the winter until we know whether we want to proceed," he said.

If the company decides to move forward, Guilinger said it would use an open-pit mine. A processing facility would be built in the area.

Uranium was first discovered in North Dakota in the 1940s, in lignite beds in the western part of the state, Murphy said. It was mined from at least nine sites in southwestern North Dakota, he said.

North Dakota's mines produced about 592,000 pounds of uranium oxide while they were in operation between 1962 and 1967.

Mining companies burned lignite to reach the uranium that was within the coal deposits, Murphy said. The mines were set ablaze, using old tires or diesel fuel to ignite the open pits.

"That's illegal now," Guilinger said.

In the 1970s, some 2,000 test holes were drilled in southwestern North Dakota in anticipation of more mining activity, Murphy said. But nuclear energy fell out of favor with Americans after the Three Mile Island reactor accident in 1979.

Murphy said rules are being crafted to address uranium mining that would use in-situ recovery technology, which injects water and chemicals into rock formations to extract uranium.

Rules that apply to a conventional mill, as planned by the Australian company, already are in place, he said. END

A couple of other links too... (there are loads more this morning) effectively saying the same:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20080703&id=8860758

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080703/nd_uranium_exploration.html?.v=1

http://www.kumv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=20063

Cheers, DL