Hudbay Minerals Inc T.HBM

Bloomberg News Story - Trump Officials Appeal Decision

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Trump Officials Appeal Decision Halting Arizona Copper Mine

• District court said Forest Service improperly approved Rosemont project
• Agency wants appeals court to reverse decision

By Ellen M. Gilmer

(Bloomberg Law) -- 

The Trump administration is urging federal appellate judges to reverse a lower court’s ruling that halted a contentious open-pit copper mine in Arizona’s Coronado National Forest.

The U.S. Forest Service filed a notice of appeal Dec. 23, taking aim at a July decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, which said the agency improperly approved the mine in the Santa Rita mountains outside Tucson.

Environmental and tribal groups have been fighting the project for years, arguing that it would harm endangered jaguars as well as water and nearby indigenous communities. Several lawsuits challenge decisions from the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers approving the mine. The company had planned to mine copper, molybdenum, and silver on public and private land.

The district court ruled July 31 that the Forest Service improperly analyzed Rosemont’s right to surface use in the national forest. The Trump administration is taking the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Rosemont Copper Co., part of Hudbay Minerals Inc., filed its own notice of appeal on Dec. 20.

The case is Ctr. for Bio. Diversity v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife, D. Ariz., No. 17-cv-00475, notice of appeal12/23/19. The Ninth Circuit appeal is not yet docketed.