Prepared for the Mountain Empire Action Alliance Sonoita, Arizona by Thomas Michael Power, PhD Donovan S. Power, MS Power Consulting Missoula, Montana www.powereconconsulting.com
Below are the public records and other publicly available documents supporting the Save the Scenic Santa Ritas' COMPLAINT AND REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION OF: AUGUSTA RESOURCE CORPORATION, A CANADIAN MINING AND EXPLORATION COMPANY Filed by: Save the Scenic Santa Ritas Association, Inc., December 20, 2011.
Please note: documents referenced in each section of the complaint have been zipped/compressed to facilitate the download process, but many are still large files.
Environmental Impact Report Delayed by Rosemont Copper’s Failure to Comply with Agency’s Requests
According to an article published in the Arizona Daily Star, a letter sent by Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl along with Representative (and Senate candidate) Jeff Flake blames the Forest Service for the delay in the release of the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Rosemont Copper Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson.
This Congressional letter, however, does NOT disclose that Rosemont Copper has, in fact, contributed significantly to these delays. According to publicly available Freedom Information Act (FOIA) documents consisting of internal Forest Service emails and Rosemont project meeting documents, there is ample evidence that Rosemont Copper has slowed down this EIS process.
These documents refer to Rosemont’s “dawdling”, timeline delays resulting from Rosemont not providing needed reports, and that the Forest Service made “repeated request for reports” from Rosemont.
“As indicated by this letter, Senators McCain and Kyl and Rep. Flake are apparently more concerned about expediting the Rosemont Copper project to enrich their investors than ensuring that the devastating and permanent environmental impacts are analyzed”, said Frances Causey of Rosemont Mine Truth.
Arizona's U.S. senators and a Phoenix-area congressman want the U.S. Forest Service to provide a clear schedule for release of its draft environmental impact statement on the proposed Rosemont Mine.
In response, the Forest Service said Wednesday that it will release the report in time for a 90-day public-comment period to start in October.
"We have seen the Forest Service commit publicly to a schedule for completing the EIS, only to announce several months later the need to revise it," said an Aug. 19 letter from Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl and Rep. Jeff Flake, all Republicans, sent to the agency. "The EIS for the Rosemont project began in 2008 and still, after nearly three years, not even a draft has been released to the public. Although we understand the complexity of the project may have warranted revisions to your timetables, it is difficult to understand why the Forest Service continues to push back the release date."
The service first proposed to release the draft in November 2009. The release has been repeatedly delayed, as the issues surrounding the open-pit copper mine - proposed for the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson - grew more complex.
The most recent delay was due to a 30-day extension of time for 18 local, state and federal agencies to comment on a preliminary draft environmental report, which the Arizona Daily Star reported on in June.
Fifteen of those agencies have sent comments on nearly 900 points including air quality, transportation, surface and groundwater uses, water quality and other issues, Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said in a statement Wednesday.
The service has scheduled internal briefings on the report within the Obama administration over the next several weeks, Walsh said.
But the continuing delays are disappointing to Arizonans, whether they support or oppose the mind, said the letter from the senators and Flake. That's because the draft environmental statement is the public's chance to comment on the merits of various mine alternatives and the adequacy of information provided, those officials said.
A mine opponent, Vail community activist Elizabeth Webb, countered, "I would rather see a document that is done correctly than one that is rushed due to political pressure."
Another mining company has its eye on the mineral wealth of the Patagonia Mountains.
The Coronado National Forest has recently sent out a scoping notice that indicates it is considering a new request by a multinational mining firm to conduct an exploratory operation 10 miles south of Patagonia.
“OZ Exploration Pty. Ltd, a Delaware corporation authorized to do business in the State of Arizona, proposes to drill seven core holes to test for copper mineralization in the Guajalote Flat and Paymaster areas of the Patagonia Mountains,” wrote Richard Ahern, minerals program manager for the Coronado National Forest, in a letter dated Aug. 18 that gives the public 30 days to respond. “If approved, the proposed action would be completed, including reclamation, in less than one year (about 35 weeks) from the date of approval.”
“This is not a mine. They are just poking around to see what is there,” Ahern told the Weekly Bulletin. He said the notice has not been posted in any newspapers. Instead, Ahern said he has sent out “around 1,000 e-mails.” He said so far response has been minimal.
According to the Standard and Poor’s website, OZ Minerals Ltd. is actually based in Melbourne, Australia and “engages in the exploration, mining, processing, and sale of copper, gold, silver, and other minerals in Australia and Asia.” The company also carries out exploration activities in Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Mexico, and the United States the website says.
The scoping letter said core holes would be drilled to depths of up to approximately 3,300 feet and each drill site is expected to be approximately 75 feet by 75 feet and would include a mud pit or sump with dimension of 5 feet by 10 feet by 5 feet.
“Operations would run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week with crews working two twelve-hour shifts per day,” the letter said.
Access to the project area is being proposed via State Route 82 and Forest Service Roads 82, 61, and 49, also known as Duquesne Road. In addition, approximately 2,000 feet of “temporary, low-standard access road” would be constructed on Forest Service land to provide vehicle access to and from the drill sites.
“Traffic from the junction of Hwy 82 and Duquesne Road to the project site would include initial travel by the road contractor and heavy equipment, followed by travel of the drill-rig pipe truck and several service vehicles,” the letter said. “Daily travel during the estimated 35-week period of drilling would include a crew truck and a service and fuel truck, as needed, for each of the two shifts and multiple trips per day by a water truck.”
The letter said a water truck, with a carrying capacity of 2,500 gallons, could make as many as 10 trips per day to the drilling site depending on drilling conditions, and a commercial vendor would supply water for drilling and dust suppression.
Reclamation plan
According to the letter, the reclamation plan would begin with a “concurrent phase” consisting of plugging of each hole before the drill rig is moved offsite.
“This would be done in accordance with Arizona Department of Water Resources regulations by backfilling with bentonite mud below the water line, filling from the top of the water table to within 20 ft of the surface with a mixture of bentonite drilling mud and drill cuttings, and filling the remaining 20 ft with neat cement. When the drill rig is moved from a site, all equipment and supplies would be removed from the site along with any trash and other non-native materials,” the letter said.
In addition, “post-drilling” reclamation would include filling the mud pits at the drill sites, leveling berms not needed for erosion control, and replanting the site with “native vegetation.” Temporary roads providing access to the drill sites would be recontoured or bermed with additional drainage bars and cutouts to prevent erosion, replanted with native vegetation, and their entrances blocked to obstruct future traffic.
To view a complete version of the scoping, notice visit the Coronado National Forest website.
The Wildcat Silver Corporation, a Canadian-based mining company, has also applied to conduct exploratory drilling on Forest Service land near Patagonia as it develops a plan to construct an open-pit mine. Wildcat’s Hermosa project, also known as the Hardshell project, involves an area just east of Patagonia along Harshaw Road.
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