Copper: Humanity’s first and most important future metal
Millions of feet of copper wiring will be required for strengthening the world’s power grids, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes more are needed to build wind and solar farms.
Arizona congressman Paul Gosar (R-Flagstaff), during a hearing today on the Department of the Interior’s 2013 budget, took the opportunity to question Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on his department’s opposition to a bill clearing the way for the proposed Resolution Copper mine near Superior, Arizona.
Last fall the Republican-controlled US Congress approved a bill, HR 1904, to make possible a land exchange clearing the way for what would be North America’s largest copper mine. The bill must still be approved by the Senate. Resolution Copper is 55% owned by a subsidiary of Rio Tinto and 45% by a BHP Billiton subsidiary.
According to a report in AzCapitolTimes.com, Gosar pointed out that the bill would create over 3,000 jobs in the region and give the government over 5,000 acres of land, in exchange for 2,400 acres of land containing copper ore that would go to Resolution Copper.
AZCapitolTimes reports the exchange between Gosar and Salazar:
Salazar said he recognized the economic opportunity in the bill, but that it needs more study. That did little to satisfy a visibly angry Gosar, who called Salazar’s answers “poor excuses.”
“You claim the administration is encouraging economic development in Indian Country and honoring trust responsibilities,” Gosar said. “Yet this administration is considering actions that compromise each of these goals in my state alone.”
For BHP a go-ahead on Resolution Copper would mean it will at last have something to show for a disastrous acquisition it made more than 15 years ago.
Business Spectator reports the current ore body in Arizona that Resolution Copper seeks to mine is a deep-seated porphyry copper deposit located under the now inactive Magma Mine.
BHP Billiton bought Magma Copper in 1996 for $3.2 billion. The group’s San Manual copper smelter in Arizona was considered to be the jewel in the crown, but barely three years later BHP was forced to put it on care and maintenance and then shut it down completely in 2003.
Closure costs added another $800 million to the world’s number one miner’s most disastrous acquisition to date. Rio Tinto became the joint venture partner on Resolution Copper as a result of these write-offs.
Image of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is by Wikimedia Commons.
