Last week, I joined some colleagues on a tour of the proposed Rosemont Mine site, just off of Highway 83 in the Santa Rita Mountains.
The tour was led by Jeffrey Cornoyer, the senior mine geologist for Rosemont Copper. Dan Ryan, the former TV sports dude who is now Rosemont’s community relations director, was also along for the ride.
I have to give Rosemont Copper credit—a lot of credit—for being so open and apparently honest about its intentions in the Santa Ritas. The company is offering regular, open-to-the-public tours of the open-pit mine site—sign up at rosemontcopper.com if you’d like—and is apparently taking a lot of expensive, extra steps to be a good community member, to use less water, and to make sure “reclamation” of the mine site is done in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
Problem is they’re going to utterly destroy almost an entire, postcard-gorgeous valley—and most of the plants and many of the animals that call the area home—in the process.
I understand and appreciate all of the pro-mine arguments. Our world needs copper; it’s vital to hybrid/electric cars and a lot of other elements of the new “green” economy. I understand that Southern Arizona needs jobs, and that the proposed mine would bring in a lot of jobs for the 20 or so years that it’s in operation.
I also appreciate and admire Rosemont Copper and its parent company, Augusta Resource Corp., for showing almost unparalleled openness in their Rosemont efforts. I really do.
But, man, this mine needs to be stopped. Yeah, the world needs copper. But the world doesn’t need to get it from such a gorgeous, environmentally sensitive place.
Go to www.scenicsantaritas.org for information on fighting the proposed Rosemont Mine.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2010.
thanks for your opinion……I agree. ‘But, man, this mine needs to be stopped. Yeah, the world needs copper. But the world doesn’t need to get it from such a gorgeous, environmentally sensitive place.’
It truly DOES need to be stopped. That is one of the most scenic drives in the state, one we make often as snowbirds going from Tucson to Sierra Vista for birding and hiking. It would make me physically sick to see that land raped and left devoid of vegetation. They need to find another place.
I’m glad to see that you reached a reasoned conclusion after experiencing the propaganda tour.
As for Rosemont folks being “open and apparently honest”——consider a few things that I find extremely dishonest. first, the no mine- Mine Tour. Why would a free tour be advertised for a non-existing mine? To attempt to convince the public that this project is needed and will be an asset to southern AZ because Rosemont knows very well that most people oppose this mine. It’s a PR ploy, pure and simple. Now how can an honest company tell the public that this mine will hardly be noticed when they will destroy 4000 acres! The old Marble Mine on the west side of the Santa Ritas is being mined again (by a French company) and supposedly is 22 acres. Tell me, from how many locations in Tucson, Vail and Sahuarita/Green Valley, is this mine visible as an ugly scar on the mountains, including the night lights?
Does an “honest” company claim to their investors that there is infrastructure in place, when they are 20-30 miles from electricity, water and the rail port? I don’t think so. They claim to be recharging every drop of water they would use with CAP water already. Problem is–this is being done at Marana and will not replace well water pumped from their Sahuarita wells, 6000acft annually for 20+ years. Out of their corporate goodness of heart, they have offered to bring CAP water to Green Valley, paying millions of their borrowed money to extend the pipeline, BUT they also will have dibs on GV’s CAP allocation for years to come. (You see Rosemont has NO allocation but must buy from others not using their CAP allocation.)
As for their community support, they give to every organization that will accept their generosity so that these organizations can be listed on their “Community Support” list. PR again, isn’t Rosemont wonderful! Don’t be misled, nothing they do is without ulterior motives.
Did you know that the Rosemont web site has claimed the their mine tour is Number 2 on the top ten list of Arizona attractions “by popularity”(the Grand Canyon–not on the list)
They claim their mine will produce 10% of US copper needs–fact is the copper is going to China and Rosemont will pay no royalty to the US– thanks to that 1872 Hardrock Mining Act.
Rosemont will restore this destroyed land (except for the 1.2 mile wide 2900ft deep pit) Trust me, nothing grows without water, lots of it, except tumbleweed! This is perhaps the biggest deception of all. Their reclamation test plots, visible from hwy83, are not planted in mine tailings, but on virgin land, not a true test , but one likely to have better PR value. Just look to the west. IF reclamation was possible, would that barren ugliness still be there after 50 years of mining? Let’s get real, Rosemont wants to build a mine (or sell it) and money is all that matters and the end justifies the means. They don’t care about the water, the land, the air, highway83 regardless of what they say. It’s about the money and all they have is borrowed money and they are trying to buy public opinion. Don’t be fooled!
I was told by a mining expert that since the copper percentage is so low, less than .5 per cent, the Rosemont mine won’t even produce 1% of U.S. copper–and at what a sacrifice. These are our public lands–do we want another pit and tailing impoundment in our scenic region. I know they give the bunk that they are going to vegetate the impoundment as they go along…. while using dry stacking! In the first place, soil from over 3-4 foot deep will not grow anything, it lacks the nutrients. Second, it will take a lot of water to grow anything.
I figure was have about 30,000 acres of impoundments in Pima County–that does not include the pits and milling areas and sulfuric leach pads. Enough is enough!
Obvivously neither you nor your so-called expert has not done the math. At a production rate of 75,000 stpd, 27,375,000 short tons of copper-moly sulfide ore averaging 0.45% copper will processed annually. The total copper content of this ore is 123,187.5 shorts. Assuming a modest recovery factor for the milling process of 83% for the milling process will yield 102,246 short tons of copper, annually. This figure does not include approximately 10,000 short tons copper that will be recovered annually from oxide ore over the first 10 years of project, which will be derived by a dump leaching/SX-EW process. The annual copper production from Rosemont copper will consequenctly range from about 102,000 to 112,000 short tons.
When you compare this figure to annual copper production of about 1,312,000 (2009 U.S.G.S data – http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/com…), it ranges from 7.7 to 8.5%. This is considerably more than the less than 0.5%, quoted by your expert.
First, as a 4th generation Arizona resident, I am not against mining. I am for it when it can be done in a sane way. First, the water. The water that the mine will use comes from the Sahuarita and Alvernon area. They want to recharge in Marana. Water flows downstream, not up. A major drawdown (neighborhood of 5000 gallons per minute, 24 hours a day) would most definately cause a migration of the already present but stable sulfur plume from the west side of I-19 into the water supply of Sahuarita/Green Valley. Does everybody have their clothespins ready to put on their noses when they take a shower? Got to love that rotten egg smell/taste. All this when they say we need the copper for developement, etc. Maybe the new source of copper can be the salvage of the pipes, wire, etc. from the homes that would be abandoned due to no water source? Next the logistics. The mines on the west side of I-19 have railroads for their supply. I have not noticed the trains on highway 83 yet, although it will seem like there is when the heavy mine traffic starts. Next, PR bull. Here a few weeks ago, the mines sent a couple guys over to the Helvetia ruins to “preserve” them. They built a very nice 3′ chain link fence around the already distroyed (one 2′ pile of washed out adobe ) ruins. I had the opportunity to talk to the gentlemen doing the work. The mine claims that they are bringing jobs to us. The workers were glad to have the jobs for sure, they were brought all the way from Idaho to do the fencing. Idaho? Not really local. Maybe there was some skill required to build that fence that none of our locals could provide. Great start on doing what they say they are going to, by creating jobs for our local economy. Next the copper. The copper is already contracted to China. China is in dire need of copper for its own development so don’t expect a very big chunk to be coming back here. Japan has already got the rights to the gold and silver (a big chunk of their start up costs came from the $80 million deposit from the Japan deal). So as I see it so far, a Canadian company takes a finite US resource sells it to a foreign country(s) distroys a really nice place, gives “locals” some temporary jobs, leaves a natural diaster for the future generations to deal with, and then skips town. Rosemont. PRESERVING THAT WHICH IS ALREADY DISTROYED WHILE DISTROYING THAT WHICH NEEDS PRESERVING
“thanks for your opinion……I agree. ‘But, man, this mine needs to be stopped. Yeah, the world needs copper. But the world doesn’t need to get it from such a gorgeous, environmentally sensitive place.'”
I suggest we put in a new Ritz luxury hotel with another Jack Nicklaus golf course on that site similar to the Dove Mountain area. It would provide jobs for the people in Sonoita while allowing tourist the opportunity to view the endangered orchids and snails in their natural habitat. No problem getting that passed and built.