A panel from the federal Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will hold a telephone conference call next Tuesday to hear arguments on its decision to put a temporary hold on the operating license for the proposed Powertech uranium mine in the Southern Black Hills.

A panel of 3 administrative law judges from the Board issued a stay last week on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license granted to Powertech in April for the $51-million dollar Dewey-Burdock mine north of Edgemont.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe and other groups claim that activities related to the mine could hurt cultural and historic sites in the Black Hills, and that the stay was needed for protection while their claims are being argued.

The licensing board judges said the temporary stay is intended to prevent any immediate and irreparable harm caused by earthwork or ground disturbance within the mine sites while the tribe’s challenge is decided.

Powertech project manager Mark Hollenbeck says the stay was not a surprise and doesn’t affect the operation because the company needs still needs approval from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state before starting construction.

The Dewey-Burdock mine would be an in-situ operation, injecting chemical solution into the groundwater to free uranium molecules from the soil so they could be pumped to the surface with the water and processed out. Powertech has 11,000-acres under lease for the project, but plans to mine only about 200.

Opponents argue that the in-situ mining, currently the most common method used for uranium, would deplete and contaminate water supplies as far away as the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Powertech filed its application for the Dewey Burdock mine in August 2009. The operating license approved by the NRC last month was just the fourth issued by the agency for a uranium recovery facility since 1998.