SSSR and Farmers Investment Company file lawsuit to overturn linchpin Copper World right-of-way across the Santa Rita Experimental Range
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UPDATES
On Friday, January 17, 2024, SSSR and FICO filed a Motion to Stay as a continuation of our to work to ultimately have the right-of-way revoked and construction on the route stopped permanently.
The Judge presiding over the case heard oral arguments in March 2025. ASLD and Hudbay argued a Motion to Dismiss and we argued for a Motion to Stay. Both were denied, the case now moves forward and the judge will rule on merit.
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PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2024
SSSR and Farmers Investment Company file lawsuit to overturn linchpin Copper World right-of-way across the Santa Rita Experimental Range
Tucson--In the wake of their September victory in an Open Meetings Law violation lawsuit, Save the Scenic the Santa Ritas (SSSR) and Farmers Investment Company (FICO) filed a new lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a crucial right-of-way across the Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) that is necessary for the operation of the proposed $1.3 billion Copper World mining complex.
“The Santa Rita Experimental Range is required by state law to be operated for ecological and rangeland research,” said Dr. Rob Peters, executive director of SSSR, a Tucson-based conservation organization. “The Arizona State Land Department violated state law, the state Constitution, and department regulations when it granted the right-of-way to Copper World for industrial uses, including pipelines for transporting mining waste across the range.”
The 52,000-acre SRER was founded in 1902 and is the longest continuously active rangeland research facility and among the five oldest biological field stations in the United States, according to the SRER website. “The SRER is a world-class facility because of the long-term historical and biological databases that have been maintained since its creation.”
The SRER was operated by the U.S. Forest Service until it was traded to the state in 1988 as part of the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act. That same year, the Arizona legislature mandated that the SRER by used only for “ecological and rangeland research until such time as the legislature determines that the research use can be terminated on all or part of the lands.”
In 1991, the land department issued an order closing the SRER to nearly all development. The order stated, in part, that “no applications will be accepted for surface or subsurface leases, permits, sales, rights-of-way or mineral claim location.”
But in 2017 and again in 2023, the land department used a bureaucratic process to sidestep the legislative restrictions by opening the SRER for 24 hours to add rights-of-way sought by Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. Hudbay intends to use the SRER rights-of-way to construct high-tension power lines, communications lines, and water and tailings pipelines needed to operate the Copper World mine complex.
“The Legislature did not authorize the land department to create a bureaucratic scheme to grant a foreign mining company industrial rights-of-way across the ecologically sensitive range,” said Nan Walden, chief counsel for Farmers Investment Co. “The land department is illegally treating the range as if it was just another piece of state property to be developed when clearly it is not.”
SSSR’s and FICO’s win in the Open Meeting Law case provides the opportunity to challenge the Copper World 2023 right-of-way. A Maricopa County Superior Court ruled on Sept. 9 that the land department’s Board of Appeals violated the Open Meetings Law in December 2022 when it approved the department’s recommendation for the Copper World right-of-way without publicly disclosing it would be used for mine tailings.
The court ruled the Board of Appeals approval of the department’s right-of-way recommendation was “null and void.” The court gave the Board of Appeals 30 days to correct the Open Meeting Law violation. The board held an Oct. 8 special meeting where it reapproved the land department’s 2022 right-of-way recommendation, but once again did not state that the right-of-way would be used for tailings pipelines.
SSSR and FICO responded Tuesday by filing an administrative appeal with Maricopa County Superior Court asking the court to review the Board of Appeal’s Oct. 8 decision to reapprove the right-of-way and the land department’s granting of the right-of-way.
Copper World plans to construct a series of open pit copper mines on the east and west sides of the Santa Rita Mountains about 35 miles southeast of Tucson. The project includes the Rosemont pit on the east flank of the mountain. Copper World intends to dump hundreds of millions of tons of mine waste on private land immediately east of the SRER.
“We will continue to pursue all legal options to stop this horrific mining project that will destroy the northern half of the Santa Rita Mountains, deplete billions of gallons of groundwater from the Santa Cruz River valley, pollute the air, dump hundreds of millions of tons of toxic mine tailings near existing neighborhoods and schools all to mine copper that will be exported overseas,” Peters said.
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