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A former supervisor of the Coronado National Forest in Arizona is renewing calls to modernize the 1872 mining law, saying it prevented the agency from reducing the impacts of a massive proposed copper mine. The antiquated law gives broad latitude to mining companies, allowing them to access valuable mineral deposits on public lands while paying no royalties for the publicly-owned ore they extract.
From 2010 to 2015, Jim Upchurch oversaw many key steps in the permitting process for the Rosemont Mine in southern Arizona, including a draft approval of the project in 2013. The proposed mine would disturb more than 5,000 acres of key wildlife habitat and include an open pit more than a mile wide and half a mile deep. Upchurch says the law hampered the agency's ability to reduce future impacts of the mine, noting, "Right now, there is no flexibility. It’s either ‘do this’ (what the mining company proposes) or do nothing. There’s not much leeway."
Mining companies have long sought to keep the outdated 1872 mining law in place, spending heavily to lobby officials in Washington. Under the Trump administration, their efforts are paying off. Until just months before joining the administration, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt lobbied for the Rosemont Copper Company. Unsurprisingly, in office Bernhardt has moved to speed the approval of new mines and reduce federal oversight of mining operations.
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In government, form and function are inextricably linked. Proponents of this [BLM] reorganization know this, too. Dividing agency leadership into distributed pieces, scattered across multiple states, will produce an agency less likely to achieve its broad mission for the American public.”
