Forest Service: No Rosemont Decision in December, no date set

According to a U.S. Forest Service press release, the Coronado National Forest today announced that the December 2012 goal of releasing the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed Rosemont Mine would not be met.  The release went on to say that, “[e]xact dates for release of the FEIS are difficult to predict” and thus no future release date has been set.

The Forest Service attributes this delay to “additional work that must be completed including the consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; consultation with tribes and the State Historic Preservation Office; Army Corps of Engineers permit coordination; updating of air quality models; additional transportation analysis; integration of updated lighting mitigation plans; evaluation of socioeconomic impacts to the astronomy industry in southern Arizona; and consultation with the Forest Service Southwestern Regional Office.”

Additionally, the Forest Service notes that Augusta Resource Corporation’s, Rosemont’s parent company, recently released plans to modify its mine proposal “will be reviewed.” [The modified plans were included in the updated Feasibility Study released earlier this summer.  Click here for further discussion of the Feasibility Study.]

Finally, the press release indicates that the Coronado National Forest has requested Rosemont to “reconsider various aspects of their operations.”