RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected a Virginia company’s bid to end the state’s decades-long ban on uranium mining.
A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond on Friday upheld the ruling of a district judge who threw out a lawsuit from Virginia Uranium Inc. challenging the ban.
The Pittsylvania County company wants to mine a 119-million-pound deposit of the radioactive ore beneath the rolling hills of Southside Virginia. It argued that a federal law should pre-empt state regulations, but the courts disagreed.
Attorney General Mark Herring hailed the ruling. Neither an attorney nor a representative for the company immediately responded to requests for comment.
Virginia Uranium has also filed a separate lawsuit in a state court. A trial date in that case hasn’t been set.
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