Virginia Uranium says the state's ban on uranium mining is pre-empted by federal law and had filed the petition for writ of certiorari, to appeal an earlier court decision that found against the company.

It is a subsidiary of Virginia Energy Resources (TSXV: VUI) which owns the Coles Hill uranium deposit that it has described as the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the US and one of the largest in the world.

An updated 2013 preliminary economic assessment found Coles Hill had "the potential for attractive economics" based on an assumed U3O8 price of US$64/lb, with a capex of $147 million, an IRR of 36.3%, an initial production of 2 million pounds a year and a 35-year mine life.

The state first banned uranium mining in 1982 and Virginia officials had urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal, Bloomberg reported.

"This case raises no issue of general or urgent importance," the respondents including Virginia attorney general Mark Herring said in a supplemental brief.

The justices will decide the case in their next term which starts in October, Reuters reported.

Virginia Energy had working capital of about $736,000 at the start of the year.

It had also filed a separate state-based lawsuit in November 2015 seeking "injunctive and other relief overriding the ban on mining in a takings claim". It said last month that the trial scheduled for December had been postponed and no new trial date set.

Its shares have ranged between C7-23c over the past year and last traded at 12.5c, capitalising it at $7.2 million.

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