LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — A Vancouver, British Columbia, company plans to drill this month near Mount St. Helens to determine if there are enough valuable minerals to mine a site 12 miles from the volcano.
Ascot Resources Chief Financial Officer Robert Evans told The Daily News of Longview the drilling aims to confirm tests in the 1970s that showed high levels of copper, silver and gold. He says mining would be a long way off.
Ascot has an option to obtain mineral claims owned by General Moly, a Lakewood, Colo., company that dropped mining plans in 2008 after the Bureau of Land Management denied a lease application.
Environmental opponents says mining would threaten water systems and the nearby Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.
