By the Journal of Commerce

An Arizona junior mining firm with claims in Southwest Alaska says more than one large global mining company is expressing interest in partnering on the claims.

Liberty Star Uranium and Metals Corp. said in a statement the company is optimistic, but doesn't know at this time whether a joint venture partnership will happen. Liberty Star did not identify the other firms.

The property is located northwest of the proposed Pebble mine project. Pebble Partnership spokesman Sean McGee said his company is not among the firms interested in Liberty Star's claims.

The April 10 Liberty Star announcement came just two days after the Arizona firm expressed interest in finding a joint venture partner for its 707 mining claims, which are sprawled over some 177 square miles of Southwest Alaska, centered 25 miles northwest of the village of Iliamna.

Liberty Star's Big Chunk is one of three claim blocks on the Big Chunk caldera, a volcanic-intrusive feature thought to be the source of mineralization in the area.

The Pebble Partnership, a joint venture of Anglo American plc and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., owns the Pebble Project, and Full Metal Minerals Ltd., which recently signed a joint venture agreement with Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corp., holds the third property on the caldera.

Liberty Star's 2004 exploration program found copper-molybdenum porphyry-style mineralization on the portion in an area known as White Sox. The boundaries of the mineralization detected had not yet been fully determined, with only the western limits defined, the company said.

Liberty Star staked the property in December 2003. A survey was flown over the property in January through May 2004. Field work was conducted from June through October 2004.