Dec 9, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
Ocelots are roaming Arizona!
The Sky Island Alliance photographed an ocelot in southern Arizona in November or 2009. And in April of 2010, an ocelot was run over by a car between Gaan Canyon just east of Oak Flat Campground and Top Of The World, Arizona. According to a recent article in the latest issue of the High Country News, the Arizona Game & Fish Department thinks that this ocelot was not captive breed and therefore presumably a free roaming wild ocelot. In addition to the ocelot kill on US Highway 60, there have been several sitings of ocelots within the Oak Flat Campground itself since April of 2010. The Arizona Game & Fish Department is working with the US Fish & WIldlife Service and the US Forest Service to investigate these sitings.
It has been known for some time that the Oak Flat ecosystem (containing Gaan Canyon, Apache Leap, Queen Creek Canyon, and Oak Flat Campground) is ecologically unique, but the high probability of ocelots in the area is yet another reason to not rush into passage of the Oak Flat land exchange and to make sure that Rio Tinto goes though the normal process of trying to permit a mine rather than taking a Congressional shortcut.
Aug 23, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight |
Tony Davis of the Arizona Daily Star interviewed Director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, Roger Featherstone, and President of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, Gayle Hartmann, last week and published parts of the interview on Sunday, August 22, 2010. See a transcript of the article here or go to the full article.
Apr 21, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
The following editorial written by Roy Chavez and Roger Featherstone ran in the April 20, 2010 edition of the Arizona Republic.
The Sonoran Institute was on target in its critique of
the proposed Rosemont mine south of Tucson (4/3/10 Arizona Republic), however,
the author drew the wrong conclusion about Rio Tinto’s proposal to mine under
Oak Flat Campground east of Superior. In fact it would be impossible to
do the same thorough analysis of the Rio Tinto project as is being done on the
Rosemont mine proposal, since Rio Tinto has yet to even write a mining
plan. Rio Tinto is trying to evade the rules, which every other mining company
wanting to use public lands must follow, and has instead gone straight to the
U.S. Congress for a special sweetheart land exchange deal.
Mar 20, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
Yesterday Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick introduced the compromise language Senator McCain wrote last year on the Oak Flat land exchange. That language was substituted for the original language in S 409 and was voted out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last December. The new bill, HR 4880 has been referred to the House Natural Resources Committee. Representative Kirkpatrick has renamed the bill the ‘‘Copper Basin Jobs Act’’
Mar 20, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining, Press |
Recent Press on the Oak Flat Land Exchange
Feb 24, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight, Oak Flat Mining |
It’s bad enough for Congresswoman Kirkpatrick (D-1st District, Arizona) to be pushing for the destruction of Oak Flat Campground by two foreign mining companies, but now in an attempt to obfuscate the issue, the Congresswoman is trying to change the name of the project. Instead of identifying the issue as the Oak Flat land Exchange (or it’s “official” title as the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2009) (S 409 and HR 2509), she is now referring to this miscarriage of due process as the Copper Basin Jobs Project. Taking a page out of her predecessor Rick Renzi’s playbook, this is just another underhanded scheme to rip off our public lands. Please be aware of this attempt to fly under the radar. This certainly isn’t a jobs project, it’s a land exchange that will make us all poorer!
The new bill number for Kirkpatrick’s bill is HR 4880 and it is nearly identical to the Senate version (S 409) introduced by Senator McCain. Our fact sheets on the original version of S 409 and the new version that was passed by the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.
Feb 6, 2010 | Arizona Mining Oversight |
Directed and Edited by Bryan O’Neal, Director of Photography: Ruben Ruiz, Produced by Roger Featherstone
If you are having trouble watching the video, try updating your flash player plug-in. No flash – download The Great Oak Flat Land Giveaway in .mov format (beware – 245mb!)
Two foreign mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP – Billiton, have created a
subsidiary (Resolution Copper) that is proposing to mine a copper
deposit more than 7,000 feet deep east of Superior, Arizona. As
a first step, Rio Tinto is currently shopping around a land exchange
bill S. 409 (in the Senate) and HR 2509 (in the House) that would end an executive order banning mining from Oak
Flat Campground and privatize more than 2,400 acres of public land.
