Meetings scheduled to discuss Rosemont Mine

The Associated Press

Three public meetings have been scheduled next week to discuss environmental impacts of a proposed open-pit copper in the Santa Rita Mountains east of Green Valley.

Attempting to answer questions about the proposed mine will be officials of the Coronado National Forest, SWCA Environmental Consultants, a private firm hired by the Forest Service to work on the environmental impact statement and officials with Rosemont Mining Co.

The U.S. Forest Service scheduled the meetings, during which officials will discuss the agency’s process for initiating a required environmental impact statement for the proposal.

A lengthy public comment period will follow the public meetings, officials said.

Rosemont Mining Co., a subsidiary of the Canada-based Augusta Resource Corp., wants the mine on 995 acres it owns in the Santa Rita Mountains.

If approved, the mine would spill over onto 3,670 acres of the Coronado National Forest, 15 acres managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management and 75 acres of State Trust land.

Those opposed to the mine include environmentalists, residents living near the proposed mine and the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

“It is important that people attend these meetings to let the Forest Service know how opposed people in the Tucson valley area are to allowing this mine,” Board Chairman Richard Elias said Wednesday.

The supervisors are on record as opposing the mine.

“Mining there would harm conservation and recreation areas, consume large amounts of groundwater, damage watersheds for the county’s Cienega Creek Preserve, degrade existing groundwater supplies and impact habitats for rare or endangered species,” the supervisors said in a resolution unanimously approved last year.

The Rosemont mine would benefit the state and national economies, according to a study by the Marana-based Western Economic Analysis Center.

The proposed copper mine would create nearly 500 direct jobs and pump $256 million a year into the area economy, the report said.

Statewide, the mine would generate 2,950 jobs and $488 million annually and boost the nation’s economy by $2.3 billion a year and some $43 billion directly and indirectly over its 19-year life, according to the analysis.

Details

Meetings on the Rosemont Mine:

Tuesday: Pima Community College Desert Vista Campus, 5901 S. Calle Santa Cruz, Tucson, 7 p.m.-9 p.m.

Wednesday: Canoa Hills Center, 3660 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley, 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

Thursday: Patagonia Union High School, Highway 82, Patagonia, 6 p.m.- 8 p.m.