Rosemont pit will pump deep, create lake
The following story ran in the January 8, 2010 edition of the Nogales International. The report referenced in the story was written for the mining company and points out what opponents have been saying all along: This is the wrong place for a mine. it’s hard to even imagine what the Santa Rita’s would look like with the water table more than 2,000 feet lower than it is now!
Rosemont pit will pump deep, create lake
By Dick Kamp
A study of flow impacts from water drainage at a proposed open-pit mine in the Santa Rita Mountains predicts the formation of an 819-foot “pit lake” 100 years after the mining is completed.
According to the study commissioned by the Augusta Resource Rosemont Mine, groundwater at the bottom of the pit will have dropped 2,020 feet below current modeled groundwater levels at that site.
Open-pit miners and underground mines pump water constantly when operating so that folding does not hinder operations once a pit is below groundwater levels.