Natives go to court Monday over uranium dispute

A uranium exploration company has launched a $77-million lawsuit against two First Nations groups who have set up a blockade on an exploration property in the Sharbot Lake area of Eastern Ontario, preventing the company from beginning a diamond drill program.

Both groups will spend Saturday trying to deliver a message to the public about the impact of uranium exploration and mining on land the native groups claim is theirs.

Members from the Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadijiwan First Nations, who have been on site since June 28, will be give pamphlets to motorists along Highway 7 near the town of Perth.

Meanwhile, Frontenac Ventures, a private company that was hoping to have its initial public offering soon, will be in McDonalds Corner speaking to the Dalhousie Lake Association.

On Monday, both groups will face off at the Ontario Civil Superior Court in Kingston, Ont., when Frontenac plans to ask for an injunction to be let back on the property.

Doreen Davis, chief of the Shabot Obaadijiwan First Nation, says she will stay on the mining property for as long as it takes to get the government to put a moratorium on mining. She says she wont go even if the judge grants the injunction.

We will not allow the diamond drill at any cost, Davis says. Its our responsibility to Mother Earth and the water.

Davis says nobody looks at the whole picture when it comes to uranium mining and nuclear power. She fears the water quality in the region will be affected.

Frontenac president George White says many of the protesters are making erroneous statements about the impact that mining would have on the environment.

We couldnt possibly pollute anything that is already polluted, White says.

Frontenac geologist Greg Lester, who will deliver Saturdays presentation, says that the lake and river sediments are commonly 500 times the allowed concentration for uranium in drinking water according to Canadian government and World Health Organization standards. Drinking water should have no more than 0.02 parts per million uranium.

More uranium minerals are exposed to water in-situ than would be exposed post processing in a tailings pile, Lester says. This is not true to every uranium mine its due to the type of rock mineralogy here.

The Sharbot Lake area is a part of the Grenville province of rock, which is a highly fractured shear zone where water is a part of a very large aquifer, an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock. Lester says if theres naturally occurring uranium in the rock, theres definitely uranium in the water.

The project is still very early-stage but Lester says indicators to-date signal that the property could be very economical to mine.

But we cant do that if we cant explore the property, Lester says.

White says anomalies from radiometric surveys indicate the area is home to the three largest anomalies in the country. White first staked the property in 1967, and held it for 20 years, and then began to re-stake it in 2004. Over the last two years the company has spent about $1 million on exploration.

White says the government made no indication there was a native claim on the land until recently.

The argument is that the Algonquin of Ontario never gave up their rights through treaty or sold or lost their territory through war, and thus assert that about 36,000 sq. km of land stretching from Algonquin Provincial Park to Ottawa and south to Bancroft and Sharbot Lake, is theirs.

Frontenac lawyer Neal Smitheman says that the lawsuit will continue even if the injunction is granted on Monday, but that the damages will be reduced.

He points out the junior exploration companies cant raise money if they arent exploring.

Right now the company is sitting on its hands doing nothing, hemorrhaging money, Smitheman says. If we gain access to the property, well be able to obtain more funding.