EARTHblog » Pete Dronkers
1872 Mining Law Backs US Forest Service Into Corner, Again
On Thursday, August Resources -- the backer of the widely opposed Rosemont Mine in southern Arizona -- announced it has received a key permit from the Coronado National Forest. They need this permit to mine the mile wide, half mile deep open pit copper deposit southeast of Tucson.
Tagged with: mining, rosemont, santa ritas, augusta resources
Hitting the ground running: an introduction to Arizona’s copper belt
“We’re going underground now,” Mark said as the truck neared a landmark on a hillside. It marked the beginning of what might eventually be a waste rock dump at least 600 feet tall from the proposed Rosemont open pit copper mine in southeastern Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains. The visual was striking; I could imagine the expanse of this behemoth mine, with its dump stretching miles from one side to the other, covering the mountainside and its foothills, and the habitat of everything that had ever lived there. Included in the fallout zone was a once-productive ranch house, with corrals, water tanks, and trees – the ingredients for a sustainable, renewable economy. I was told that Augusta Resources – the Canadian junior mining company behind the idea – had already bought out the ranch, and now it was broken, lifeless.
Tagged with: mining, oak flat, arizona, resolution copper, rosemont, rosemont copper mine
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