Beowulf Regulatory News (BEM)

31 Jan 2006 08:57

Beowulf Mining PLC31 January 2006 BEOWULF MINING PLC NEWS RELEASE Beowulf Mining plc (AIM:BEM), the AIM listed mineral exploration company,announces that it has been gifted 5,000,000 ordinary 1p shares in All StarMinerals PLC (All Star). All Star is a company with 30,000,000 ordinary shares in issue, of which thedirectors are currently Bruce Rowan and Dr Robert Young who is also ManagingDirector of Beowulf. Dr Robert Young is interested in 5,900,000 ordinary sharesof All Star and Bruce Rowan is interested in the remaining 19,100,000 ordinaryshares. The directors of All Star intend for All Star to obtain an OFEX Listingand become involved in the exploration and development of thorium, an elementthat the directors believe is the near-term future of nuclear fuel. In the February 2005 US Geological Survey annual report on rare earths it saidon page seven that, "In the future, thorium's use as a non proliferative nuclearfuel is considered a likely replacement for uranium, especially in a worldconcerned with the threat of terrorism. As demand for thorium increases,monazite would resume its role as a leading source of rare earths." Thorium was first discovered in 1828 by the Swedish chemist, Jons JakobBerzelius, who named the metal after Thor, the Norse god of war. Thorium, whichis represented on the periodic table by the symbol Th, has been recognised forits ability to power reactors since nuclear energy emerged in the 1950s. Thoriummakes up around 0.0007% of the earth's crust, making it roughly three times moreabundant in the earth's crust than uranium, its more radioactive counterpart.However, thorium has been largely ignored for nuclear energy due to its atomsbeing difficult to split, which is the fundamental requirement of a fissionreactor. Thorium is composed of a common single stable isotope, 232Th, which can absorbneutrons and convert to 233U (uranium-233). From this point 233U undergoesfission to generate energy. As well as generating power, a further advantagefrom using thorium is the significantly lower level of transuranic waste that isproduced compared to a reactor powered by uranium or plutonium. For further information contact :- Dr. Robert Young, ChairmanBeowulf Mining plc Tel: +44-(0)1353 649 701 Gavin BurnellRuegg & Co. Limited Tel: +44-(0)207 584 3663 Nick BealerKing & Shaxson Tel: +44-(0)207 426 5986 Gary MiddletonSt Swithin's Public Relations Tel +44 (0) 207 429 4391 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange