RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Article for you guysCame across this and it made me think of Excelsior. How do the two projects compare? Which is more along?
Article on Florence In situ leach project permitting process IN-SITU COPPER MINE HEARING: ADEQ gets both sides
By MARK COWLING, Staff Writer @MarkCowling04 | Posted: Thursday, May 26, 2016 1:00 am
Rodney Lawson
James Stephens, who said he’s been a well driller for 27 years, spoke up for the Florence Copper Project at a public hearing May 19:
“They just want a pilot project. Let them show if it can work. If it doesn’t work, what do you have to lose?”
The question immediately elicited grumbling from the FCP’s opponents, many wearing red shirts, who believe they stand to lose quite a lot — in property value and maybe even their health — if an in-situ copper mine poisons the water.
“Florence Copper has never developed a permit that adequately protects our aquifer,” Barbara Manning of Florence said, adding that an administrative law judge called a previous version of the permit “unlawful, arbitrary and unreasonable.” Manning said the company had a second chance to make it better, but “wasted that opportunity with yet another flawed permit.”
Out of 46 total speakers, 14 spoke in opposition to the mine. Approximately 250 people attended the hearing in the Florence High School gym. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) hosted the meeting to gather public comments on a “temporary aquifer protection permit” that will allow the FCP to do a small 1.5-acre test of its mining process for one or two years. Rather than dig a pit, the FCP plans to mine the mineral “in-situ” – dissolving it underground with a weak sulfuric acid solution and pumping it back to the surface for processing.
The FCP must also receive a federal permit before the test phase can begin.
Larry Putrick, vice chairman of the Florence Planning and Zoning Commission, told ADEQ representatives he’s an electrical engineer, and the FCP’s hydraulic control has not been explained to his satisfaction. “Every time you mine for copper, you usually have some kind of problem to do with water.”
Town Council member Bill Hawkins said he’s seen nothing about who will pay for the cleanup if things go awry. “Look at what Flint, Michigan, is going through.”
He said he’s asked numerous times for an example of one in-situ mine that hasn’t polluted, and he’s still waiting. “As important as water is to Arizona … it boggles my mind that you would even consider this,” he told ADEQ representatives.
Stacey Brimhall, who owns property in every direction from the FCP, said if there’s “a shadow of a doubt” about its safety, then “ADEQ’s responsibility is to not issue this permit.”
“Leaks, breaks happen every day,” said another man who identified himself as a longtime plumber. He said he’d never heard of an in-situ mine that hasn’t contaminated the water.
Town Council member Vallarie Woolridge said she’s concerned about large quantities of sulfuric acid being transported through town. An accident could require the evacuation of nearby homes, “or God forbid, portions of the prisons,” she said.
Town Council member Karen Wall scolded the ADEQ for not making it easier for the average citizen to determine if Florence Copper had done everything that was required of it. She said the public shouldn’t have to scour highly-technical documents to try to determine if requirements had been met.
Norma Henderson said she liked the FCP when she served on the Town Council many years ago, but “I learned a lot, and I would not vote for it this time.”
Brad Cole, chief operating officer for Johnson Utilities, said his company pumps local drinking water from the same aquifer that Florence Copper plans to drill through. He said Florence Copper’s safety assurances “are not something I’m willing to blindly accept.” Besides the sulfuric acid used to mine the copper, “numerous other harmful chemicals and metals will be released as part of the process,” Cole told ADEQ representatives.
But most of the people speaking Thursday were supporters. Keith Kinney of Florence said the town is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight the FCP, but if anything goes wrong with the test run, “the ADEQ won’t charge the town a dime to shut it down.”
Lina Austin, who called herself “an old hippie environmentalist,” said the United States needs copper and she was comfortable the FCP wouldn’t add anything to Florence’s water.
Raymond Grant of Florence, who said he’s a retired geology professor, called the FCP “great for Florence and the state of Arizona.” He said a two-year testing phase is an ideal way to see if it works.
David Malton noted mine opponents, who worry about sulfuric acid coming in contact with the water supply, aren’t protesting farmers putting sulfuric acid on their fields, nor do they see any problem with it each time they run their dishwashers.
Denise Kollert of Florence said she’s taken the tour of the FCP a couple of times, she and her husband have done their own research, “and we think the science proves out what they’re telling us.”
Brad Glass, an attorney with Gallagher & Kennedy of Phoenix, who has represented Florence Copper, said opponents are misrepresenting the permit. “The (Arizona) Water Quality Appeals Board upheld the vast majority of the permit,” Glass said. Another Gallagher & Kennedy attorney, Lee Decker, called the latest permit “extremely robust and the most stringent I’ve ever seen.”
“We are really happy where we are in the permitting process now, and we feel strongly we should see both permits (state and federal) in the very near future,” Stacy Gramazio, Florence Copper community affairs advisor, said before the hearing. “Ninety-five percent of the (state) permit is no longer subject to appeal,” she said.
The test phase, or “Production Test Facility” or PTF, will employ 40 or so people, Gramazio said. Former owner BHP conducted a test run in late 1997 and early 1998 but didn’t proceed to full-scale production because of low copper prices at that time.
Florence Copper Vice President Dan Johnson said he expects the PTF will be under construction in the fourth quarter of this year.
The FCP is expected to use a maximum of 1,500 acre feet of water per year, compared to 3,000 acre feet per year if the property were developed for housing or 4,800 acre feet per year if it were farmed, Johnson said.
With no diesel trucks, heavy equipment or smelters, it will have a low carbon footprint compared to traditional mining, Johnson said.