The Tonto National Forest has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) examining Rio Tinto’s Resolution Copper mine proposal and is asking for your comments.

The deadline for comments is November 7, 2019.  Please go to our alert to learn more and to edit a sample comment letter to send to the Forest Service.

The DEIS contains some frightening information about what this proposal would do to Oak Flat and thousands of additional acres of public land.  However, much of that data minimizes the damages and there is a large amount of information about this project that is missing.

Rio Tinto proposes a huge experimental underground block cave mine that would create a 2-mile-wide 1,000-foot-deep crater at Oak Flat, would dump a billion and a half tons of toxic mine waste into an unlined toxic tailings dump, and would and would use enough of Arizona’s precious water to supply the city of Tempe, Arizona, for 40 years.  What could possibly go wrong?

Foreign mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP have formed a subsidiary called Resolution Copper that is planning to build a large underground copper mined under Oak Flat Campground.  Oak Flat is sacred to Native Americans and is a recreational and ecological haven.  The proposal would not only destroy Oak Flat, but thousands of additional acres of public and would decimate water sources over a wide area.

 

What the DEIS examines

A series of slides showing the components of Rio Tinto’s proposal being studied by the Tonto National Forest.

Mining plan slides 9-9-19

Oak Flat Factsheet

A factsheet about the basics of Rio Tinto’s proposal and the process we are fighting

Oak Flat Factsheet 9-9-19

Talking points for comments

Use this document to craft your comments during the public meetings or for your written comments.  (We’ll update this as we review the DEIS in more detail, so check back often.)

Comment talking point for Oak Flat DEIS

Comment on Resolution Copper DEIS

We need your help to protect Oak Flat!