Comment: Please compare the two guys and their life views about their homes and uranium mining!
Jeffrey Lee, Australian Aborigine, makes the following statement: won’t condone the destruction of his ancestral land at any cost!
The Virginian views: "They hope to persuade local, state and federal officials to allow all uranium buried beneath Coles Hill to be mined and milled"!
Now look at this comment from Lee:"Lee has rejected all requests to purchase Koongarra.
Now look at the Virginian: "Virginia Uranium, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with a Canadian mining company to enhance its financial resources."
Also the following statement was made by the Virginian: "plans to live in his ancestral home located nearly in the middle of the two uranium deposits but the Virginian has a home in the middle of Danville, Virginia and rumor not living in his house in the county! None of the people of uranium corp. live in our county; they appear to live in Danville and one in Canada according to this link :http://va-danville-propertymax.governmax.com/propertymax/rover30.asp!
So what is the main difference between the two men mention in the articles, the Australian loves his land and loves his neighbors. The Virginian loves money and will sacrifice his homestead and his neighbors for GREED according to the articles below!
Jan 15, 2010
Posted by rainlillie
"A stunning vista of jagged brick-red cliffs lies in Australia’s desolate Northern Territory. As breathtaking as the scenery is, though, most people are more concerned with what lies beneath Koongarra: A massive deposit of uranium worth $5 billion.
Just one man, 36-year-old Jeffrey Lee, holds the title to this unfathomably valuable piece of real estate – and he says it’s not for sale.
Lee, an Australian Aborigine, won’t condone the destruction of his ancestral land at any cost. As the sole survivor of the Djok clan, he believes that he has a grave responsibility to protect Koongarra and the rest of his tribe’s native lands from harm.
“There are sacred sites, there are burial sites and there are other special places out there which are my responsibility to look after,” Lee told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Lee has rejected all requests to purchase Koongarra. He is committed to protecting it from uranium mining, which would poison the land and destroy its fragile ecosystem.
It’s a shocking choice, to be sure – but Lee has no need for a fleet of yachts, his own island, or any other trappings of the decadent life. His desire is simply to preserve the legacy of his ancestral tribe.
So instead of selling Koongarra to a mining company, Lee plans to incorporate his homeland into Kakadu National Park, where “it will be protected and safe forever,” he said.
Lee’s incredible sacrifice isn’t just about salvaging the past: It’s about protecting the future, too.
Even though he has no children yet, he believes that access to the sacred ancestral land is the greatest gift that he can provide for his future offspring.
“I was taken all through here on the shoulder of my grandmother,” said Lee. “I heard all the stories and learnt everything about this land, and I want to pass it all on to my kids.”
Read more:
http://greatmindsthinklikemerainlillie.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-news-story-of-day-man-turns-down.html
Man sits on radioactive gold mine in Virginia
A Pittsylvania County farm lies on one of the country's largest uranium deposits, worth about $10 billion.
Look at the the differences in Jeffrey Lee, one who loves his land and the Greedy Virginian who is selling his soul to the devil for MONEY!
CHATHAM -- Coles Hill is the name of a historic farm here in Pittsylvania County, a quiet place off a dirt road with a stately, brick home overlooking tangled hedgerows and rolling fields.
It also is the site of one of the largest uranium deposits in the United States, and the biggest ever discovered on the East Coast.
As much as 110 million pounds of uranium ore could lie beneath these gentle hills where cattle now graze and tobacco once reigned. The value of this radioactive deposit, based on current market prices, is about $10 billion.
Along with neighbors, family and friends, Coles has formed a company, Virginia Uranium Inc., and hired geologists and professionals, who work in a small office in Chatham, the Pittsylvania County seat. They hope to persuade local, state and federal officials to allow all uranium buried beneath Coles Hill to be mined and milled.
Instead, Coles said, he decided to "keep this a Virginia effort" and began organizing his own mining company. A 2001 study by Virginia Tech, which confirmed that the deposit is neither moving nor leaching underground, also motivated Coles to start his own company.
Coles, who says he is "approaching my late 60s," is retired after working for years as a foreign service officer for the U.S. government.
Coles and others insist that those bad days are long gone and that the industry has become smarter and safer with advances in environmental technology and worker safety.
Critics say Coles is missing a crucial point -- that the East Coast is vastly different from the West.
"I could have sold out and moved to Florida," Coles said, "but I'm staying here. I'd live right here with the mine just down the road. I want to make this happen."
Read more:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/137665
Uranium mining plan splits Pittsylvania County
BY REX BOWMAN
Media General News Service
Published: February 9, 2009
Mayhew noted that Virginia Uranium chief Walter Coles, whose family has been in Pittsylvania since the 1700s, plans to live in his ancestral home located nearly in the middle of the two uranium deposits.
Virginia Uranium, meanwhile, has agreed to merge with a Canadian mining company to enhance its financial resources. The company and the law firm that represents it have also given more than $7,000 in campaign contributions to some of the 13 legislators who are members of the coal and energy commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee, which is overseeing the study.
Aside from his environmental and health concerns about the proposed uranium mine, Fitzgerald said it would destroy a big part of what makes Pittsylvania unique — a quiet way of life now unknown by millions of Americans and even suburbanites in Northern Virginia and the Richmond area.
Patrick Wales, a Danville native and geologist for Virginia Uranium, said landowners’ fears are overblown: the ore deposits are in an isolated part of the county, and trucks would only occasionally haul uranium from the site.
No one, he said, intends to do any harm to the county: “We haven’t been here 4,000 years, but this is our hometown, too.“ (what the heck does that mean?)
http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/state_regional/article/uranium_mining_plan_splits_pittsylvania_county/13280/
