Thursday, July 13, 2017

STOP THE ATROCITY! Rio Tinto's Proposed Resolution Mine Threatens Water Supplies and Human/Natural Ecologies


Trump's crusade against environmental sustainability has reached a new pinnacle:
Emily Flitter. July 12, 2017. Massive copper mine tests Trump's push to slash regulation http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-regulation-mining-idUSKBN19Y0D7

SUPERIOR, Arizona (Reuters) - Rio Tinto's proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona would tunnel 7,000 feet underground, where rocks radiate heat from the earth’s molten core. It would suck up enough water to supply a city and leave a crater a mile and a half wide and 1,000 feet deep.

Planned for more than a decade, the project would be a prototype for a looming era of more invasive U.S. mines as companies run out of easy-to-reach deposits, geologists say. It is also the project President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, had in mind as he began crafting a "hit list" of regulations that should be killed to speed industrial permitting.
You can read more here: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-arizona-copper-mine/

Native Americans and environmentalists are fighting the mine because it will consume vast quantities of Arizona's precious water and it will threaten a sacred ground now known as Tonto National Forest. I can attest that Tonto is indeed sacred ground.

The Arizona Republic explains why an act of congress is required to extend this terrible blight on the earth:
Ryan Randazzo (2014, October 11). Resolution Copper Invests in Mine Despite Obstacles. The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2014/10/11/resolution-copper-mine-investment/17130623/

The mine's opponents hold leverage over the project because, unfortunately for Resolution, part of the underground copper deposit lies under a 740-acre piece of national forest called Oak Flat that was withdrawn from mining activity in 1955 in part to protect 16 U.S. Forest Service campsites.

That means it will take an act of Congress to allow mining at the site, something Resolution and the Arizona congressional delegation have failed to secure for nine years running, and something opponents say they aim to prevent.

Resolution has proposed dealing with this issue by trading 5,300 acres of "environmentally sensitive" land on eight parcels from near Payson to southern Arizona for the 2,400 acres of federal land, including Oak Flat, that the company would like to dig under near Superior.
This mine is a blight and must be stopped.  Trump's crusade against environmental sustainability will leave this beautiful corner of the Southwest region blighted, with fewer opportunities for its people.

Read about mining's toxic legacy here:
S. Dudka & D. C. Adriano (1997). Environmental Impacts of Metal Ore Mining and Processing: A Review. Journal of Environmental Quality, 26, 590-602. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.462.7000&rep=rep1&type=pdf

STOP this mine!

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