Mining Arizona (with Background Info & Statement)

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Scroll below, to see these 3 sections...

• Mining Arizona - Destroying Lands, Cultural Sites, Waters, and Wildlife Habitat ~ by Gary Beverly
• Background Info on Local Mines ~ by Don Steuter
• Statement: Havasupai are Leading Protection of Lands ~ by Stuart Chavez, Havasupai Tribe Uranium Committee member

Mining Arizona - Destroying Lands, Cultural Sites, Waters, and Wildlife Habitat

~ by Gary Beverly

In Arizona, you can’t go far without passing a mine.
 

Plate tectonics has blessed (or cursed?) Arizona with abundant mineral resources including copper, gold, lithium, uranium, zinc, lead, coal, and more. Our economic system depends on these raw materials, extracted from the earth at the expense of the environment and indigenous people. This reckless exploitation is permitted by obsolete federal mining law.

• Gold:
  • Historic abandoned hard rock gold mines are scattered throughout our mountain ranges,
    • some draining acidic water laced with heavy metals such as arsenic and cadmium.
  • Riparian waterways have been scarred by placer mining.
  • Gold Paradise Peak, a new open pit gold mine -- is proposed near a residential neighborhood southwest of Prescott.
• Coal:
  • Now closed, the Peabody coal mine (near Kayenta) dewatered springs needed by Hopi and Navajo families.
    • Shady lawyers conspired with the Bureau of Indian Affairs -- to defraud the tribes of fair royalties.
    • This coal was used to pump Central Arizona Project (CAP) water -- to central and southern Arizona.
• Lithium:
  • Mines proposed for the Big Sandy (near Wickiup) are offensive to the Hualapai people -- as they threaten their sacred Ha’Kamwe’ springs.
• Uranium:
  • There are hundreds of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation
    • that exposed thousands of miners to cancer-causing radiation.
      • Those mines have yet to be cleaned up.
  • The White Mesa mill in southern Utah threatens to pollute the Colorado River and groundwater.
  • The newly active Pinyon Plain mine (near the south rim of Grand Canyon) is likely to contaminate groundwater -- that feeds the waters of the Havasupai Tribe and Grand Canyon.
• Copper:
  • Giant open-pit mines litter the state.
    • Ajo, Bisbee, and Jerome are now inactive.
    • Bagdad, Morenci, Ray, Safford, and Pinto Valley -- are currently active.
  • The Sierra Club is vigorously opposing two huge and controversial proposed copper mines:
    • Rosemont Copper, now Copper World (southeast of Tucson)
    • and the Resolution Copper Mine (east of Superior)
      • which would desecrate Apache spiritual practice and consume vast amounts of groundwater.

Many of the abandoned mines are environmental hazards–the miners left a mess for taxpayers to clean up. One example of many is the Iron King/Humboldt Smelter Superfund site (near Dewey/Humboldt) -- which contaminated land and groundwater with arsenic.

Some mines are on tribal lands -- but most are on public land managed by the US Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management -- and were facilitated by the 1872 Federal Mining Act...

This ancient legislation is the root of the issue. It requires land managers to permit mining on public land! It strongly limits requirements for environmental protection.

• It does not require royalty payments, thus permitting foreign-owned corporations to extract mineral wealth that belongs to U.S. citizens without royalty, and to export that wealth overseas.
• Fundamentally, it authorizes theft of public resources by foreign corporations without environmental protection.
  • The proposed Copper World and Resolution copper mines are owned by Canadian, British, and Australian corporations.
  • The proposed Gold Peak mine is owned by a Chinese company.
• The only effective law regulating mines is the federal Clean Water Act, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, which only controls the quality of water leaving the mine site.
• Arizona state law regulates mining only lightly and water use is unregulated.

The Grand Canyon Chapter fights to limit the environmental damage caused by mines. The Sierra Club has struggled for decades to revise the 1872 Mining Act, but the mining industry is rich and powerful. Still, there are opportunities to place limits on groundwater pumping from mines, and, if the right conditions arise, ensure stronger Clean Water Act protections and reclamation requirements.

We are calling on the Biden Administration and Governor Hobbs to use the tools they have to protect our lands, waters, wildlife, and our health from harmful impacts of mining. President Biden protected nearly a million acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands from future mining when he proclaimed the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. That was an important action–and we need more of that.

~ By Gary Beverly 

Background Info on Local Mines

~ by Don Steuter

• Resolution Copper Mine–Oak Flat, Superior, AZ
  • The obsolete mining law of 1872 allows for mining companies to use virtually any mining technique in order to maximize profits.
  • Called block caving (mining from below the ore deposit) this project would result in a subsidence zone almost 2 miles wide and 800 feet deep that would destroy sacred indigenous sites and de-water neighboring springs and creeks.
  • The harmful effects of this mine would extend 20 miles in either direction due to groundwater pumping on State Trust Lands near the San Tan Mountains and the massive tailings dump at Dripping Springs.
• Rosemont Copper Mine – Santa Rita Mountains, Tucson
  • A court victory in 2019 and later upheld by the 9th Circuit put a dent in the 1872 law by ending the practice of dumping mine waste on federal lands.
  • Clearly illegal for decades to most legal scholars, mines and land agencies ignored the law’s requirement that to be valid a mining claim had to contain valuable minerals – dumping waste on a claim certainly indicated to the contrary.  
  • Meanwhile, mine owner Hudbay is constructing a new mine on the west slope of the Santa Ritas on private and State Trust lands, and Congress is scheming to pass legislation to allow dumping to resume.
• Pinto Valley Mine–Miami, AZ
  • The weak mining law of 1872 has resulted in the Forest Service allowing expansion of the mine located on private land onto the Tonto National Forest.
  • Studies published in the Environmental Impact Statement showed that expansion of the mine would likely result in the death of another 5 miles of Pinto Creek.
  • Once eligible for Wild and Scenic River Designation due to its spectacular riparian vegetation, the creek is being destroyed despite the Forest Service having an in-stream flow water right that was supposed to protect flows for wildlife and recreation purposes.
  • The 1872 law prioritizes mining over all other uses of public lands.

Statement: Havasupai are Leading Protection of Lands

~ by Stuart Chavez, Havasupai Tribe Uranium Committee member

“The work that the Havasupai Tribe’s leadership and Committee members have done in an attempt to stop uranium mining is important to highlight because of the sacredness of the environment of Havasupai ancestral lands and the natural resources that surround the current mining area. Protection of these resources above and below the ground is extremely crucial because of the danger imposed on the Havasupai’s water resources and spiritual beliefs. By developing a disconnect to the current location of the mine it has a deeper impact on spiritual practices that cause ripple effects on more than everyday practices.  

The current Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument stands proudly as a physical representation of the efforts of multiple tribes to protect sacred areas that are significant to each tribe in a specific way. The Havasupai’s connection to Red Butte and the surrounding area has a deeper meaning than words can express; the area is a physical representation of Havasupai history and past experiences that connect us to our ancestors and time.

This is why we fought for protection.”

~ Stuart Chavez, Havasupai Tribe Uranium Committee member