Please contact your Members of Congress to introduce the Save Oak Flat Act Please ask your members of Congress to support and co-sponsor the Save Oak Flat Act when it is reintroduced in the House and Senate in 2021 to right a wrong, protect the religious freedom of...

We need your help to keep Oak Flat in public ownership for everyone to enjoy.  If you live in the United States you have additional opportunities to protect Oak Flat by contacting the US Forest Service.  No matter where you live, please send an email to Simon Thompson, the Chairman of the Board of Rio Tinto, and ask him to not steal Oak Flat and to abandon the project.

Please act now to protect Oak Flat. NEWS FLASH:  We have just learned that The Tonto National Forest plans to publish the FEIS on January 15.  You can help turn this date back by contacting the Forest Service Chief. It is clear that the US Forest Service is bowing to...

 If you are in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2020, please attend this rally to protect Oak Flat.

The deadline for this action has expired. The Coronado National Forest is currently accepting comments on the Sunnyside Exploratory Drilling Project in the Patagonia Mountains A Canadian junior mining company is attempting to develop another mining project in the...

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...

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...

The US Forest Service will host 6 public meetings starting September 10 in Superior, AZ, on Rio Tinto's proposal to destroy Oak Flat and thousands of additional acres of public land.  The Forest Service has added (as of September 20) another meeting in Tempe, AZ on...

High above the town of Superior a hour east of Phoenix, Arizona, lies Oak Flat.  Oak Flat campground was protected from mining by President Eisenhower in 1955 and is a rare desert riparian area with large oak trees, cool shade, year around water in pools and springs. ...

Please comment now to protect precious Arizona groundwater

The deadline for comments is Tuesday, February 27, 2018, so act now!

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently accepting comments for a draft permit that would allow a brand-new mining company with no track record to pollute Arizona groundwater to extract copper from Arizona grasslands rich in cultural heritage just upstream from the Willcox playa, winter home to thousands of imperiled Sandhill cranes.

The permit would allow the company to drill 1,400 wells and inject over 7,000,000 gallons of sulfuric acid a day into the groundwater. 

In-situ mining is a type of mining that injects acid into the ground to dissolve copper and other minerals.  This toxic solution of copper and acid is then pumped from the ground and processed to remove the copper.  In-situ mining, by definition, is the intentional pollution of ground water.  In-situ mining has long been used to produce uranium but (outside of several existing mines) has never been attempted to mine copper.  No in-situ mine has ever returned the groundwater to pre-mining conditions.

Please send the EPA comments on this inappropriate project. 

For More Information:
Original comments from a Coalition of groups
Supplemental comments
EPA’s project website

 

Updated 2/26/18