The Morenci mine, in Southeast Arizona, may soon lose its status as one of North America’s largest producer of copper. (Image by Arizona Wonders)
Arizona’s lawmakers slipped Tuesday night a piece of legislation that would allow mining giants Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) and BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) to jointly build a massive copper mine in the state as part of a deal with the U.S. Government.
According to Arizona Republic the bill —set to be passed before the end of the year— would allow Rio to acquire 2,400 acres of the federally protected Tonto National Forest in southeast Arizona in exchange for 5,000 acres in parcels scattered around the state.
The land land-swap bill was added into the 1,600-page National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense appropriation legislation that must be passed each year, according to the report.
Both miners have said they expect operations at their Resolution Copper project —55%-45% owned by Rio and BHP— to start as early as 2020. But they have had to deal with legal hurdles and opposition by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and other southwestern nations, who claim the massive project would weaken the ground beneath their sacred Native American lands.
Analysts are confident this time the miners will get their wish granted.
“This land swap has faced a long and bumpy road in Congress,” Caitlin Webber, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst told The Daily Telegraph.
“Finally being tucked into this must-pass bill is the closest it’s been to enactment,” she added.
Resolution Copper, located in Arizona’s famous Copper Corridor, is expected to create 3,700 direct and indirect jobs and bring more than $6o billion in economic benefits to the state over its 66-year life. Rio and BHP estimate that output from the mine will meet 25% of the U.S. total demand, which will make it North America’s largest copper mine.
Learn more about the project:
Resolution Copper Mining – Mine Plan of Operations from Resolution Copper on Vimeo.
6 Comments
Nancy Freeman
Let Them Drink Beer!!
This is the carpet-bagger’s motto, who has not informed himself of the water depletion in the region of the mine. They will have to dewater the whole region because cave block mining cannot be done in a wet region. They have already pumped hundreds of millions of gallons out of the region to drill their SHAFT No. 10. If you are interested in some water data, go to http://www.celebrate-earth.com/water-depletion-at-oak-flat/
Neither have they counted how many century old oak trees will die in what to be projected land–protected by Eisenhower and Nixon–but Obama would not do it!!
gen y, here to stay
De-watering requirements depend on the permeability of the rock. If the rock is highly permeable then the difference between a shaft and a whole block cave is not large (due to the shallow gradient of the induced water table depression).
How many century old oak trees die when you create 3700 ranching jobs?
Mark
If you disagree with Ms Freeman don’t be a wanker and attack her sex and age. I also am a miner, but you can’t discount her point about dewatering. The positives I can see is that it is a site of previous mining activity, its underground & at the edge of the Tonto National Forest. Maybe redirect some of the $20bn taxes towards reclaiming some of the adjoining land-desert to the National Forest. USA have some of the toughest environmental hurdles in the world. If Rio-BHP stuff up they have the resources to fix problems they may cause.
Vic Vilas
A Dollar in the right pocket will buy our children’s futures, and the really sad thing is we allow them to get away with it
Thaddeous
It’s just copper people, the bigger question is – What if….”the hokey pokey is what it is all about”?
jimnbubba
The San Carlos Tribe never had any problems with so called sacred ground before , it’s clear that environmentalist are at the crust of the Apaches complaint, the mine site is miles from their Reservation. I lived in Superior as a kid and my first job was with Magma Copper, this is all bunk on created by goody two shoes wanting to feel warm and fuzzy