Monday, 15 January, 2007

by ALISON BEVEGE and MANDI ZONNEVELDT
NT News

AT MIDNIGHT under a full moon, a Territory prospector and his team hammered stakes into the ground 25km south of Alice Springs.

At 8am the following day, six giant Chinese corporations and more than 40 other mining hopefuls bun-rushed a chance to claim a billion-dollar uranium deposit - but the lone prospector stood in their way.

The midnight pegger had blocked them all.

When Territory mine developer Norm McCleary heard the NT Government was to drop 18 Reservations of Occupation (ROs) from sites across the NT, he realised two of the ROs covered the valuable Angela and Pamela uranium deposits, valued at between $1 and $2 billion.

The prospecting veteran quickly hatched a plan to stake his claim.

The ROs were gazetted to disappear at midnight on December 6. The NT Department of Mines had advertised it would accept exploration licence applications over the ROs as of 8am on December 7.

Mr McCleary contends that left an eight-hour window of opportunity for someone to physically peg out a mining claim the old-fashioned way.

So the prospector and his team arrived in Alice Springs and promptly hired four-wheel drives.

At 11pm on December 6 the group carefully set their watches, checked their GPS systems and set off into the Outback.

"We wanted to be able to time our pegging almost to literally the first second past midnight," Mr McCleary said.

"When the clock struck 12, the hammers started to hit straight after it."

"It was a beautiful night. We even had a full moon. You couldn't have picked better pegging conditions."

Mr McCleary is now taking the NT Government to court to keep his claim - and the stakes are high.

"You're talking an in-ground prospect of between $1 and $2 billion," Mr McCleary said.

"And there's only two tickets in the game, my ticket and the NT Government's ticket.

"You don't get a chance to buy a ticket in a two-ticket billion dollar lottery very often."

Mr McCleary rates his chances of winning as 60/40.

There are three ways to stake a claim over a site, according to the Mining Act.

You can apply for an exploration licence, a mining claim or a mineral lease.

The Mines Department specified in its advertisements regarding the dropping of the ROs that applications for exploration leases over the Angela and Pamela deposits would have additional selection criteria due to the expected high level of interest.

But the Department never mentioned mining claims or mineral lease applications in its advertisements - and it did not say these applications would be excluded.

Mr McCleary applied for both a mining claim and a mineral lease.

But NT Department of Mines spokesman Stephen Yates said the Department was only calling for exploration licences in their advertisements.

"It was a notice that was placed in accordance with the legislation calling for exploration licences so that the final rights could be awarded on merit," Mr Yates said.

"And we can't comment further as the matter is before the courts."

The mines department contends a mining claim cannot be pegged unless permission to access the land has been granted by the Mining Warden - an employee of the Mines Department.

Mr McCleary had applied on December 4 to stake a mining claim but, as the Department had not replied by the crucial date of December 6, he went ahead and pegged it anyway.

Mr McCleary says the NT Department of Mines did not follow the correct procedure when dealing with his application, unfairly denied consent for him to enter the land and did not provide reasons for their refusal.

His company, McCleary Investments, has lodged an injunction in the NT Supreme Court that blocks the Mines Department from granting an exploration lease on the Angela and Pamela deposits until his case is heard.

A directions hearing will be heard before Justice Stephen Southwood at the Darwin Supreme Court on January 18.