This illustration of the planned Rosemont Mine shows where the copper ore will be processed and copper concentrate produced to be sent to a smelter. / Courtesy of Hudbay and Rosemont Copper / Arizona Daily Star
By Tony Davis | Arizona Daily Star
Opponents of the Rosemont Mine filed suit Wednesday to overturn the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ recent approval of a permit for the $1.9 billion project.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges that the Corps violated the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Administrative Procedures Act and several related rules and guidelines in approving the permit for the mine in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson.
The Corps approved the permit on March 8. Its 81-page decision concluded that the project will serve the public interest, that its plan to mitigate for damages to washes on the mine site is adequate, and that some of the most damaging impacts that opponents say it will cause are not within the agency’s legal scope of analysis for the project.
