TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based Ascot Resources on Friday said it was “disappointed” by an Oregon District Court ruling this week that enjoined permits granted by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Forest Service (USFS), pending a review, adding to delays in starting the Mt Margaret project, in the St Helens mining district of Washington state.

TSX-V-listed Ascot on Friday said it would now consult with the government's lawyers and its own lawyers as to the best way forward.

The Mt Margaret deposit is one of the largest copper/molybdenum/gold/silver calc-alkaline porphyries of Miocene age in Washington state. Since its discovery in 1969, Duval Corporation conducted numerous exploration programmes and mine/metallurgical studies on the deposit until the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption halted all fieldwork.

The Mt Margaret deposit is located 22.5 km south-west of Randle, in Skamania County, about 20 km from the crater of Mount St Helens.

In March last year, Ascot reported that the USFS had denied an appeal brought by Portland, Oregon-based environmentalist group, the Gifford Pinchot Task Force (GPTF), against the USFS’s "decision notice" and "finding of no significant impact" of Ascot's two prospecting permits on the Mt Margaret property.

The GPTF subsequently took the BLM and the USFS to court, which on Thursday ruled in the plaintiff’s favour, ordering the agencies to review the permits until they met all requirements of several environmental laws, including the National Forest Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

US district judge Marco Hernandez ordered the BLM and the USFS to take a closer look at potential negative impacts previously overlooked by the agencies.

The GPTF argued that the exploratory drilling being pursued by Ascot would “open the door” to mine development and that the USFS should consider the likely impacts at this early stage. The group held that a large copper mine at the edge of the Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument and in a seismically active region posed a serious risk of releasing toxins that could devastate threatened fish runs and contaminate community drinking water supplies downstream.

Ascot, in 2010, signed an option agreement with General Moly to acquire its 50% interest in the property.

Mt Margaret holds a historic resource of 523-million tons, grading 0.36% copper, 0.011% molybdenum, 0.24 g/t gold and 1.6 g/t silver.

Ascot drilled 11 holes at Mt Margaret in 2010 to confirm and expand the historic resource estimates.

The company’s 2011 drill programme was scheduled to start in early July and included the drilling of up to 30 holes on the company’s MS 708 lease to increase the drill density to allow for a National Instrument 43-101 resource to be calculated.

However, the drill programme was suspended pending an environmental assessment report, which was being prepared in conjunction with an application for prospecting permits on land next to the MS 708 lease, which the company believed could have significant economic potential if developed in conjunction with MS 708.

These were the prospecting permits which Ascot received in December 2012, and for which the USFS denied an appeal in March last year, and for which the GPTF took the USFS and BLM to court.

Should it get permission to do so, Ascot plans to drill 63 holes from 23 drill pads, which would help to determine the size and grade of the Mt Margaret deposit.

Meanwhile, Ascot on Friday said drilling on its flagship Dilworth/Premier project, near Stewart, British Columbia, had started in June, with the first results expected shortly.

Despite trading 3.52% lower on Friday at C$0.82 apiece, Ascot’s TSX-V-listed stock had gained 28.79% in value from the start of the year.