The University of Arizona is quietly facilitating construction of the proposed Copper World Mining Complex by green lighting utility rights of way (ROW) across the 53,000-acre Santa Rita Experimental Range, state records show.
The Range is owned by the Arizona State Land Department and managed by the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The U.S. Forest Service transferred the Range to the state in 1988. State statute requires the Range to be operated for “ecological and rangeland research purposes.” (See page 208-209.)
Since at least 2009, University of Arizona officials have given affirmative written approval or remained officially silent on requests by two Canadian mining companies seeking ROWs across the Range. Without the ROWs, the project’s current owner, Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc., would face enormous challenges in developing its planned $1.3 billion Copper World project.
“It’s outrageous that a handful of University of Arizona bureaucrats are facilitating the construction of at least four open-pit copper mines that will destroy the northern half of the Santa Rita Mountains,” says Dr. Rob Peters, executive director of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, a Tucson-based conservation group that has opposed mining in the mountains for decades. “This is an unnecessary project that is opposed by Pima County, the City of Tucson, three Indian Tribes, thousands of area residents, and environmental groups across the region, state and country.”
Continue reading
