Vancouver’s Boss Power (TSX-V:BPU) saw its stock surge 100% to $0.32 Thursday after the province agreed to use $30 million of taxpayer money to settle a two-year legal battle.
The battle centered on the company’s Blizzard uranium property near Kelowna. Boss Power was exploring the property and hoping to develop it into a mine before the Liberal government placed a ban on uranium mining and exploration throughout the province in 2008.
Boss Power contended the ban was akin to expropriation of its uranium claims, and filed suit against the province, claiming a misfeasance in public office.
Last year, Boss Power further claimed the province refused to process the company’s 2008 Notice of Work (NOW) application in a timely fashion, preventing it from applying to the federal government to develop Blizzard into a mine.
In December, the province filed a notice of application conceding that on July 20, 2008, deputy minister Greg Reimer (now BC Hydro’s executive vice-president of transmission and distribution) and assistant deputy minister John Cavanagh instructed the chief inspector of mines Douglas Sweeney “not to consider the NOW and that approval for that work was not to be granted.”
Business in Vancouver caught up with Boss Power earlier this year. (See “Uranium miners rushing everywhere but here” – issue 1108, January 18-24.)
At the time, the company was seeking between $42 million and $59 million in compensation for the Blizzard property.
Boss Power president and CEO Randy Rogers couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday morning, but the Ministry of Energy and Mines said in a release the company had agreed to surrender its claims to Blizzard.
The province also said it would pay for Boss’ legal costs on top of the $30 million settlement award.
Joel McKay
@jmckaybiv