Arizona Court upholds Vane Minerals' lawsuit against Department of Interior

AIM-listed copper, gold and silver mining company Vane Minerals has issued a legal update relating to its ongoing court proceedings with the US Department of the Interior.

According to a trading statement issued by Vane on Friday morning, an attempt by the US Department of Interior to dismiss lawsuits filed by Vane, challenging its withdrawal of lands, faced a setback on January 8th, after the US District Court of Arizona denied all but one of the Department of Interior's claims.

As a result of the court order, the lawsuits will proceed and oral arguments will be heard on March 1st.

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The development follows Vane's decision to join legal proceedings with the National Mining Association and Nuclear Energy Institute against the US Department of Interior in June 2012.

Vane is seeking compensation for damages it sustained by the Department of Interior's withdrawal of over one million acres of federal lands in northern Arizona.

According to Vane, the withdrawal of land prevented it from carrying out activities on 678 mining claims including claims held by its joint venture with U1, on which Vane said it had invested several years and several million dollars in an effort to develop uranium.

VML's share price was unchanged at 0.78p at 09:31 on Friday morning.

MF