Federal judge bars Rosemont Mine construction

[Ptah]

Source: Arizona Daily Star


A federal judge stopped the planned Rosemont Mine in a ruling Wednesday evening, halting plans to start building the $1.9 billion project in August.

U.S. District Judge James Soto’s ruling in Tucson overturned the U.S. Forest Service’s 2017 decision approving the mine and its 2013 final environmental impact statement clearing the way for that approval.

His ruling, if it survives expected appeals to higher courts, would drive a stake into longstanding federal policies that say the Forest Service virtually can never say “no” to a mine if it would otherwise meet federal laws. It calls into legal question how the Forest Service has used the 1872 Mining Law to justify its approval of Rosemont — and by extension other mines on its land.

Soto’s decision called the Forest Service approval “arbitrary and capricious.” He sided with environmentalists and tribes that sued to stop the Hudbay Minerals Inc. project.



Read more: https://tucson.com/news/local/federal-judge-bars-rosemont-mine-construction/article_53b3d5bc-b403-11e9-a413-e78b06cf0a82.html

[Ptah]

1. more

The open pit mine, which would cover more than 4,500 acres of private and public lands in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson, would be the third largest copper mine in the U.S.

In his 37-page decision, Soto hammered almost exclusively at the Forest Service’s approval of Hudbay’s plan to dump mine waste rock and tailings from its 955-acre pit onto 2,447 acres of nearby public land on the Santa Ritas’ eastern slopes.

[Bayard]

2. Yay Judge Soto!

Cannot BELIEVE the Forest Service agreed to let them dump this crap on public land. Hoping his ruling holds up to appeal.