Explore the proposed Rosemont and Copper World projects virtually
Check out Pima County’s updated map of the proposed mine site. Click on any spot on the map for ownership/status information. Mapping details are based on Hudbay’s PEA dated May 1, 2022.
Hudbay's Copper World project has bought private land where it plans to dump toxic tailings extremely close to Corona de Tucson community, including Copper Ridge Elementary School.
In the map, the pink polygons are the location of tailings piles. The yellow polygons with road networks are residential areas. The yellow polygon touching the northernmost pink tailings pile is the Corona de Tucson neighborhood.
Copper World plans to put a massive tailings pile less than one and a half miles from the Copper Ridge Elementary School in Corona de Tucson. This giant dust pile will be hundreds of feet tall and contain toxics like arsenic and lead that can blow with strong wind events towards school and houses in Corona de Tucson. Lead is an extremely dangerous neurotoxin that damages the developing nervous systems of children. The U.S. Center for Disease Control says that there is no safe level blood level of lead. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may be left with permanent intellectual disability and behavioural disorders. (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health)
Copper World plans to put a massive tailings pile two and a half miles from the Corona Foothills Middle School in Corona de Tucson. This giant dust pile will be hundreds of feet tall and contain toxics like arsenic and lead that can blow with strong wind events towards school and houses in Corona de Tucson. Lead is an extremely dangerous neurotoxin that damages the developing nervous systems of children. The U.S. Center for Disease Control says that there is no safe level blood level of lead. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may be left with permanent intellectual disability and behavioural disorders. (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health)
Quail Creek is 7.9 miles due east of the Copper World project. Instead of beautiful mountain views, homeowners will have a direct view of 500-foot-tall tailings piles. Also, parts of the existing mountain skyline will be removed.
This maps shows the areas near Sahuarita and Patagonia where foreign mining companies have staked claims. The pink shape to the north is Hudbay's Copper World project in the Santa Ritas. The brown polygon surrounding the pink consists of public land that Hudbay has claimed.
The pink and brown area in the SE corner of the map represents predominantly public land claimed by Australian company South 32.
Both these mountain ranges are much visited for recreation and tourism. If they are both converted to mines, the local recreation and tourism industries would be seriously damaged.
This is an artist's projection of what the Santa Ritas would look like when viewed from the east after completion of the Rosemont Pit. The ridgeline is gone with the height of some peaks reduced by thousands of feet. The Santa Rita Valley would be filled in with waste rock and tailings contaminated with lead and heavy metals.
Hudbay seems dead set on exploiting both sides of the mountains, as shown in this map. Here is a link to an excellent article by Tony Davis of the AZ Daily Star, warehoused by Rosemont Mine Truth, that describes their plans in detail.
The below info draws from Hudbay’s Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), released on June 8, 2022, after the 9th Circuit had affirmed the ban on Hudbay dumping waste rock and toxic tailings willy-nilly on Forest Service land.
According to the PEA, Hudbay has rolled the Rosemont project into a bigger 44-year plan that projects first mining the relatively small amount of copper on the west-side Copper World part of the project, and then turning to the much richer deposits on the east side, where they will complete what used to be called the Rosemont, but on an even bigger scale.
Here’s language from Hudbay’s Preliminary Economic Report, released in 2022, that lays out their plan in detail:
“This Technical Report presents the results of a preliminary economic assessment (“PEA”) of Hudbay’s 100%-owned Copper World Complex in Arizona, which includes the recently discovered Copper World deposits along with the Rosemont deposit (collectively, the “Project”). The Copper World deposits consist of seven deposits, including Bolsa, Broad Top Butte, West (formerly referred to as Copper World), Peach, Elgin, South Limb and North Limb, and are referred to collectively in this Technical Report as “Copper World”. The Rosemont deposit has been renamed the “East” deposit and is referred to as such throughout this Technical Report, unless the historical context requires otherwise.”
When the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in May, 2022 determined that Hudbay couldn’t dump Rosemont tailings willy-nilly on any nearby Forest Service land, Hudbay rolled the Rosemont project into this large “Copper World + Rosemont” project. Their plan is to first mine the west side, where they have purchased ranches where they will dump their waste rock and processed tailings. Of course, the court decision doesn’t restrict their dumping on private land. It’s not clear at this point exactly where east-side Rosemont tailings would be put, perhaps in the pits dug in west-side Copper World.
Tables 1-7 and 1-9 in the PEA show Hudbay anticipates starting to mine the Rosemont Pit in year 3 of their 44-year plan, and that by year 6 they will be mining more ore on the Rosemont side than on ease-side Copper World. They project stopping production on the east side by year 16, presumably because the relatively shallow deposits there will be played out. Table 1-9 shows that mining of the Rosemont side will continue until year 44, at which point they will be mining more than 150 million tons per year, 6 times the Rosemont yield in Year 6.
Rosemont has asked the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) to sell the two parcels (within white circles) so they can link up other land they own (red) to make it easier to dump waster rock and tailings.
As of today, September 3, 2023, the ASLD has not decided whether to auction the two parcels. Click the Act Now! link at the top of any page to learn how you can tell them, "Don't sell!