Tuesday, 16 January, 2007

ABC NT Local News

A mining prospector says he will present a strong case to the Northern Territory Supreme Court as he fights to keep a portion of mining land south of Alice Springs.

Norm McCleary and five other men met at the Angela and Pamela Uranium sites at 11pm on December 6 last year.

The crown land reservation at the deposit sites officially expired at midnight, leaving what Mr McCleary says was an eight-hour period to manually stake out a mineral claim.

Mr McCleary believes the group has beaten up to 40 companies for the slice of land, which contains uranium worth an estimated $10 million.

He says he is surprised others did not also make claims.

"So anyone could have looked at the Mining Act, understood it, and done exactly the same as me," he said.

"I fully expected to have eight or 10 different pegging crews on the ground there that night."