Asarco wants 11,000 acres pulled from Ironwood Monument

[Ptah]

A major conflict is brewing between Arizona’s copper industry and environmentalists and recreationists over the future of Ironwood Forest National Monument and two other monuments.

As part of the Interior Department’s ongoing review of 21 national monuments, the multinational mining giant Asarco has asked that more than 11,000 acres be pulled from the 129,000-acre Ironwood monument northwest of Tucson so it can mine more copper there, next to its existing Silver Bell copper mine.

The mining company said in a letter to Interior this summer that it wants the land removed to carry out an expansion it says has been blocked since Ironwood was designated 17 years ago. The company says the agency erred on legal and technical grounds in designating the monument.

Asarco’s letter coincides with a broader effort by the state’s mining industry to shrink Ironwood and two other Arizona national monuments that were named by President Clinton. The others are the Sonoran Desert National Monument lying north of Ironwood in Pinal County and the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Coconino County.

http://tucson.com/news/local/asarco-wants-acres-pulled-from-ironwood-monument/article_9c293332-911d-5c5a-8eff-5a5797e894f8.html

[CrispyQ]

1. What a beautiful area!

“In this case, the ecosystem is fairly unique. It needs a certain size of conservation area to be protected. You can’t protect it with small pieces,” he (Huckelberry ) said.

[procon]

2. A desert ecosystem is very fragile, it takes decades for a cactus to grow that high.

Instead of that unique landscape, under Trump's policies, visitors to those monument might find something like this:






That's the Rosemont Deep Copper Mine, an open pit extraction project that's 1 mile wide and ½ mile deep, in Pima County, Arizona.