Atna McDonald claim dismissed by U.S. Court of Appeals

2008-04-23 09:42 ET - News Release

Mr. James Hesketh reports

ATNA RECEIVES COURT OPINION ON ITS MCDONALD TAKINGS CLAIM

Atna Resources Ltd. has received an opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit in the case of Seven-Up Pete Venture et al. versus Brian Schweitzer, governor of the State of Montana et al., affirming the districts courts dismissal of the case on the basis of eleventh amendment states sovereign immunity. The Seven-Up Pete Venture is wholly owned by subsidiaries of Atna. "We are extremely disappointed in this decision. The board of Atna will review our options concerning this case and will proceed in a manner that we believe to be in the best interest of our shareholders," states James Hesketh, president, chief operating officer and director.

This case was initiated after passage of the 1998 I-137 anti-cyanide ballot initiative in Montana. Passage of this initiative resulted in a law that was narrowly crafted to specifically outlaw the use of cyanide to recover gold from ores mined by open-pit methods. This legislation was the first of its kind in the United States. By the time the initiative passed, the Seven-Up Pete Venture had expended over $70-million on drilling, permitting and engineering at the McDonald gold project in Montana. The passage of this initiative critically impaired the project rendering it worthless as no other gold recovery process technology has been proven to be economically viable for these ores.