permit to mine 3rd round tech reply, page-12

"That said, everything revolves around the Source Material Lisence and from what i have gathered from NRC comments, the earliest approval of the permit would be July 2012"

Dolphin,

There is a lack of clarity with respect to assumptions surrounding the SML (as there is with most of the permits I guess).

Until we get confirmation otherwise, the current schedule is clear and is set out at:

http://www.nrc.gov/materials/uranium-recovery/license-apps/ross/ross-schedule.html

Currently, the issuence of the SML is scheduled for 5 August 2013.

This is a target and may or may not change (shorter or longer, depending).

We know from the minutes of the most recent meeting between Strata and NRC (on 7 Jul) that the schedule was still in place. Strata asked if the process was on schedule and NRC answered in the affirmative.

NRC also "reaffirmed that completion of the supplemental environmental impact statement within one year is a target and may be affected by other activities (consultations, response to RAIs)". This is in accord with the "Draft SEIS issued to EPA" published milestone for June, 2012.

The meeting minutes are at:
http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1122/ML112290005.pdf)

Gus has consistently said that the company is confident that the timeline can be fast-tracked through a detailed and pro-active approach.

There is no sign of this yet. As well as Strata has done with its submissions and consultations (it could not really have done more!) there is no sign yet that the process will be quicker than the current published timetable.

Having said that, as I recently posted, NRC is having a conference later this month on 'lessons learned from the 3 recently issued SML's for ISR projects'.

This is an excellent initiative, and tere is some possibility that this conference could result in decisions to streamline the process - to Strata's advantage.

This, however, will not be known until Oct-Nov at the earliest.