A PERTH mining developer who pegged a midnight stake on a billion dollar uranium site in the Northern Territory has lost the right to keep his claim. But Norm McCleary said he would appeal the decision by the NT Supreme Court. Mr McCleary was fighting the territory government to keep a claim over the Angela and Pamela uranium sites. Crown land reservations on the deposits near Alice Springs officially ended at midnight on December 7, and Mr McCleary claimed he outfoxed at least six global mining corporations and up to 40 others when he hammered his pegs into the soil under a full moon that night. But the NT government successfully argued Mr McCleary had not obtained permission from the mining warden before staking his claim.