Augusta Resource Corp. (TSE:AZC) — the company behind Arizona’s latest copper mine — suffered a setback last week in its efforts to develop its Rosemont Copper Project.
The Vancouver-based company was denied an air quality permit for allegedly failing to show it could comply with federal and state regulations. However, Augusta says the denial is “part of the continued effort by the AQCD [Pima County Air Quality Control District] to delay the permitting process and avoid compliance with its own rules.”
Augusta filed a lawsuit on Sept. 2nd to try and force AQCD to take action on the permit application following the timelines stipulated by law.
The mine is located on a mix of private and public land in the Santa Rita Mountains, about 30 miles southeast of Tucson.
Augusta says on its website that the mine is expected to produce 221 millon pounds of copper per year, 4.7 million pounds of moly, 2.4 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold by-product over a minelife of more than 20 years.
The property contains three copper/moly skarn deposits with proven and probable reserves of 546 million tons. Augusta first started the permitting process in 2007 by filing a Plan of Operations with the Forest Service, the federal agency in charge of reviewing potential impacts and mitigation strategies.
