New Reports reveal serious problems with Proposed Resolution Copper mine proposal and US Forest Service DEIS

The Arizona Mining Reform Coalition has released three new reports showing that Resolution Copper’s proposal to mine copper and the US Forest Service’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) reviewing the proposal are seriously flawed.  The reports will be available on the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition website on Monday, September 16, 2019. 

The reports were prepared by Dr. Steven H. Emerman, Malach Consulting, LLC, in Spanish Forks, Utah.  

 Dr. Steven H. Emerman has a B.S. in Mathematics from The Ohio State University, an M.A. in Geophysics from Princeton University, and Ph.D. in Geophysics from Cornell University. Dr. Emerman has 31 years of experience teaching hydrology and geophysics and has 66 peerreviewed publications in these areas. Dr. Emerman is the owner of Malach Consulting, which specializes in evaluating the environmental impacts of mining for mining companies, as well as governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations.

The Titles of the three new reports are: Projected Consumption of Electricity and Water by the Proposed Resolution Copper Mine, Arizona,” “Evaluation of Predictions of Land Subsidence due to Panel Caving at the Resolution Copper Mine, Arizona,” and Evaluation of the Maximum Design Earthquake for the Tailings Storage Facilities for the Proposed Resolution Copper Mine, Arizona.”  Dr. Emerman wrote another report,Potential Impact of Geothermal Water on the Financial Success of the Resolution Copper Mine, Arizona” in September of 2018 also looking at problems with the Resolution Copper proposal. 

You can view the abstracts and lighting summaries of  all of these reports in this document.

Dr. Emerman will be available at two events in Arizona September 21 and 22 to explain the significance of the reports findings and to take questions from the public and the press.

The first event will be Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 1:30 – 3:20 at the Southwest Conference United Church of Christ at 917 E. Sheridan St., Phoenix, AZ, and is sponsored by the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition.

The following day, Sunday, September 22, the Concerned Citizens and Retired Miners Coalition will host a social gathering at Oak Flat Campground east of Superior, Arizona. The gathering begins at 1:00 and Dr. Emerman will speak at 3:00. 

Foreign mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP has 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.

At both events, experts and materials will be available to allow you to comment on the Resolution Copper DEIS. The comment period end November 7, 2019.

Saturday, September 21, 2019
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Southwest Conference United Church of Christ
917 E. Sheridan St., Phoenix, AZ, 85006

Southwest Conference United Church of Christ

Sunday, September 22, 2019
1:00 p.m. – ?
Speakers at 3:00 p.m.
Oak Flat Campground
4 miles east of Superior, AZ on Highway 60

Oak Flat Campground