WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - The largest-known U.S. uranium deposit will remain firmly under ground after the Supreme Court on Monday upheld Virginia's moratorium on mining the radioactive metal, rebuffing a challenge backed by the Trump administration to the ban.
In a 6-3 decision, the justices affirmed a lower court's ruling that threw out a lawsuit brought by Virginia Uranium Inc and other owners of the massive deposit valued at billions of dollars on private land in southern Virginia. The company contested the state's authority to enact the ban enacted in 1982, saying the state policy should have been preempted by federal law.
Virginia Uranium is a subsidiary of Vancouver, British Columbia-based Virginia Energy Resources VUI.V .