Here’s the release from Powertech Uranium Corp:
POWERTECH URANIUM CORP. (“Powertech” or the “Company”) announces the termination of an option agreement dated June 30, 2009 (the “Agreement”) with Howard and Donna Diehl and M.J. Diehl & Sons, Inc. (the “Optionors”) pursuant to which the Company was granted an option to acquire certain properties, together with associated mineral rights, related to the Company’s Centennial Project. The Company has determined not to exercise the option, which required the payment of US$6.16 million, and has been unable to renegotiate the terms of the Agreement on terms deemed favourable to both the Company and the Optionors. It remains the objective of both the Company and the Optionors to continue to explore a relationship or transaction to work together to develop the uranium resources held by the Optionors. As a result of the termination of the Agreement, the reported indicated and inferred resources at the Company’s Centennial Project will be reduced by approximately 1.1 million pounds.
The Company also announces the termination of an option agreement with Thomas Varra and Dianne Varra (collectively “Varra”) pursuant to which the Company was granted an option to purchase certain properties related to the Company’s Centennial Project from Varra. These properties contain no uranium resources and were determined to not be necessary for the development of the Centennial Project.
From the Fort Collins Coloradoan (Bobby Magill):
The British Columbia-based company announced Tuesday it has terminated an option agreement struck two years ago to purchase more than 3,500 acres of land from Howard and Donna Diehl of Carr and Thomas and Dianna Varra of Nunn. The land is in Weld County about 15 miles northeast of Fort Collins. “The company has determined not to exercise the option, which required the payment of $6.16 million, and has been unable to renegotiate the terms of the agreement on terms deemed favorable to both the company and the optioners (landowners),” the company announced in a statement…
“I’d rather not comment,” Powertech USA President Richard Clement said Wednesday, citing disapproval with previous Coloradoan news coverage about the Centennial Project…
The future of Powertech’s controversial aquifer pump test, which would help the company determine the viability of its proposed in situ leach uranium mining technique, is uncertain because the land on which the test is scheduled to be conducted is owned by the Diehls…
Powertech’s option agreement with the Diehls and the Varras included the 3,585 acres of land and the associated water and mineral interests, all of which would have cost Powertech $11.45 million. In June 2009, Powertech paid $197,000 for the exclusive rights to the property, and paid an additional $1.53 million in July 2009, with another $375,000 payment made last year, according to the Canadian securities filing.
More coverage from Joey Bunch writing for The Denver Post. From the article:
The change takes about 3,585 acres out of the original 9,615-acre Centennial Project near the town of Nunn. The change would reduce the expected haul of 12.7 million pounds of uranium by 1.1 million pounds. The Varra property didn’t have any uranium on it, and the Diehl property was stuck on a price of $6.16 million. Clement said negotiations could resume later, as the project advances, the economy improves and issues are resolved from the Japanese nuclear disaster.
Clement said the company has been focused on permitting and other issues at a site near Edgemont, S.D., which Clement hopes to have worked out by the end of 2012. “And then we’ll really focus on Colorado after that,” he said.