<< I heard a news report that they (the British Military) were looking for Uranium deposits. >>

In a dolomite formation??? Not at all likely, IMHO. Wrong geology AFAIK - any geologists here who can authoritatively comment? Besides, Canada and Australia have huge known deposits and the last I knew, the UK has pretty good relationships with both those countries, to say the least.

The Brits have been surveying these caves for ~ 30 years according to this:

"The area was first visited in the mid 1970's, when American,British and later Belgian cavers began exploration of the many stream sinks around the town. Between 1976 and 1980, over 35km of cave passage had been explored and surveyed. However, exploration in the area was abandoned, probably due to the fragmentation of survey data between the various groups. It was not until 1988 that interest in the area was rekindled when a small team from the British Northern Cave Club and Mexican cavers visited the area. The potential of the region was confirmed and over the following years numerous British expeditions have visited the area. The original discoveries of the 1970's have been resurveyed and the original system has been extended considerably. To date over 100km of cave passage has been explored and surveyed and each expedition returns with more leads for future exploration"

Perhaps the stated reason for being there is the true reason? But I'd be interested to hear more if that news report you heard expands into something larger.

Regards,

Tom