The full article was incompleteDesmond O'Grady in RomeOctober...

The full article was incomplete

Desmond O'Grady in Rome
October 28, 2006

THE no-uranium movement in the Italian Alps is celebrating a victory over the Australian exploration group Metex Resources. Metex was seeking a permit to explore the uranium potential of the Valgoglio-Novazza zone, in a valley 85 kilometres north-east of Milan.

The Italian energy authority ENI located uranium there in the late 1970s but dropped further work because Italy voted against building nuclear reactors.

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange in September, Metex managing director Ian Walker said the area contained an estimated 870,000 tonnes of material which was expected to produce 130,000 tonnes of uranium, with an in situ value estimated at almost $200 million.

A Metex press release described the Novazza site as the cornerstone of our new energy policy. The news produced a pick-up in the Metex share price although it subsequently fell back to around 6.5c - only to close at 8.2c on Friday.

But the Valgoglio local council, which includes Novazza (together they have fewer than 1000 inhabitants), voted against the Metex project. And on Tuesday the Lombardy Region Minister for the Environment, Mario Pagnoncelli, announced he had given it the thumbs down.

We want to close the question once and for all, Mr Pagnoncelli said. Last week I asked the Metex representatives to withdraw their request but they have not responded.

We've got projects of our own, Valgoglio mayor Augusto Bonardo said by phone. We settled this issue years ago and don't want to reopen it for an anachronistic and dangerous project - uranium mining entails health hazards and environmental damage.

The uranium project was discussed at several public meetings. A no-uranium committee was formed and people were invited to email their disapproval to Metex. It is claimed that 500 did so and a petition was presented to Mr Pagnoncelli with 2500 signatures opposing the project.

The well-organised and nationally based Legambiente movement, with ideals close to those of the Greens, has been crucial to the opposition movement, using arguments such as that radon gas from uranium is already present in considerable quantities in the zone, which has high cancer rates.

Yet several at the public meetings spoke in favour of the Metex project, and there is a growing impatience with the not-in-my-backyard mentality which blocks many development projects in Italy.

A Valgoglio councillor who was absent when it voted against the project, Amedeo Pirola, says the earlier site exploration did no damage, provided work and resulted in construction of a useful road. He pointed out that the Metex application was only for exploration, not extraction.