Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

? for President?
Opus and the 2008 Republican dilemma.

Political Wire: "American Research Group has released new polls from three early states in the 2008 presidential nominating race.

"On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton has lost ground to Sen. Barack Obama in New Hampshire and South Carolina as Obama has gained among male Democrats in both states. Clinton continues to lead Edwards among Democrats in Iowa, with Bill Richardson cutting into Edwards' support among Democrats and Richardson leading among independents in the state. These results suggest Obama benefited from the July 23 debate and its aftermath in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

"On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has slipped in Iowa and New Hampshire and he is now essentially tied with Rudy Giuliani in those two states. In South Carolina, Giuliani is tied with Fred Thompson as John McCain has slipped into third place, giving up his lead among independents to Thompson."
"2008 pres"
6:06:09 PM

Uranium mining in Weld County?

Here's an update on Powertech's prospecting operation up in Weld County, from Earthtimes. From the article:

Powertech (USA) Inc., has received approval from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS), for its second Notice of Intent to Conduct Prospecting Operations, and that Powertech is proceeding with its program to drill 16 rotary holes, six core holes, and additional monitor wells on its Centennial Project, located in Weld County, Colorado.

The rotary drill holes associated with the coring program will be used to site the core holes and to confirm results of historic drilling conducted on the project by Rocky Mountain Energy Company in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Powertech recently filed a National Instrument 43-101 compliant Technical Report on the Centennial Project which calculated a total Inferred Resource of 9,730,490 pounds of uranium, with an average grade of 0.094% U3O8, based upon this historic drilling. Confirmation drilling is expected to increase the confidence level of many of these 43-101 compliant resources such that they may be upgraded from an Inferred category to an Indicated or Measured category.

The Company plans to complete the core holes in six separate resource areas to provide data on the chemical and physical characteristics of the mineralized Fox Hills Sandstone, as well as the overlying and underlying confining sequences. The six core holes and one additional hole will be completed as monitor wells. Chemical laboratory analyses will be performed on the core to assess the leachability of the uranium, to test for associated metals and to examine the overall geochemistry of the host sandstone. The Company plans to incorporate the results of this testing into engineering and technical studies on in-situ recovery operations and permit applications for the project.

Hydrological pump tests are scheduled for the areas where this coring program is being completed. Laboratory analyses of the core will provide physical characteristics (e.g., density, permeability, porosity, etc.) of the mineralized sandstones and confining units, to be integrated into the hydrologic testing program. This will help to ensure the results of the hydrologic testing are as complete and accurate as possible.

Concurrent with the drilling program is the implementation of other environmental baseline studies. Baseline studies are underway for air quality, meteorology, surface water quality, vegetation, soils, wildlife, background radiation, and socio-economics.

This drilling program includes the installation of seven new monitor wells, which along with the 23 monitor wells approved in the initial Notice of Intent, and more than 20 existing wells, will provide the baseline data for the groundwater in the project area. This data will be critical to the environmental report and permit applications for the Centennial Project.
"2008 pres"
12:26:43 PM

Iraq
Juan Cole: "Amid all the other health care crises in Iraq, there is the problem of large numbers of amputees because of the bombings, according to The Guardian. Even in Mosul, the large northern city that is by no means the most violent place in Iraq, there is a need for 3,000 replacement replacement limbs a year!"
"2008 pres"
4:58:46 AM