WISE, Va. (AP) - Virginia’s decades-long moratorium on uranium mining is facing a court test.
Attorneys for a mining company and the Virginia Attorney General’s office are due in Wise County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Virginia Uranium Inc. is asking a judge to allow it to tap a rich deposit of the radioactive ore or order the state to compensate the company nearly $500 million for the taking of its property.
The state wants the case tossed or moved to Richmond.
The focus of the court showdown is a 119-million-pound deposit of the radioactive ore in Pittsylvania County. It is believed to be the largest known deposit of uranium in the United States.
Virginia Uranium waged an expensive but unsuccessful lobbying effort in the General Assembly to have the ban lifted.
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