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GREEN VALLEY — The Pima County Board of Supervisors didn’t consider a proposed resolution Tuesday opposing development of a copper mine at Rosemont Ranch on the east slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
The area is east of Green Valley and Sahuarita.
The supervisors originally scheduled to debate the resolution at Tuesday’s board meeting in Tucson, but decided beforehand the issue wouldn’t be discussed.
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District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll said last week that the resolution will go to the board again on Dec. 5.
Opponents say the proposed open-pit mine by Augusta Resource Corp., will wreck the land and consume too much water.
Augusta owns part of the land and part of it is on U.S. Forest Service holdings. The Forest Service is considering the company’s request to mine the area.
The mine site is west of state Route 83 on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains.
Carroll introduced the resolution, but action was earlier delayed so the other supervisors could study it.
This latest delay occurred when Augusta asked for more time to study the proposed resolution, Carroll said.
Carroll, noting Tuesday’s 70-plus item agenda, said a delay was probably a good idea.
At a late September meeting, Supervisor Sharon Bronson summarized concerns by the board.
“We asked about multiple use, what about bankruptcy (and its effects on promises made by Augusta,) lighting issues and dark skies, the effects on the Cienega watershed, migratory (wildlife) corridor issues and the water supply,” she said.
She also asked that if Augusta sells the property, would its promises be honored by the new owners?
At one time Asarco owned the land and considered mining it in the 1990s, but falling copper prices thwarted that idea.
Green Valley Community Coordinating Council representative Ellen MacLaren raised the question of what would happen to the mine’s wastewater and where would it be ultimately discharged.
Augusta has a five-year agreement to buy 10,000 acre-feet of Central Arizona Project water a year for the next five years to operate the mine.
An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons.
Augusta paid more than $20 million for 2,960 acres next to Forest Service land and has a grazing lease that would provide it with 12,000 acres of a mining claim.
Rosemont was a small community with a post office that operated from Sept. 27, 1894, to May 31, 1910.
There was a small copper mine there, but the town of about 150 abandoned the area when it failed financially.
save money wrote on May 3, 2007 6:47 AM: