Copper mine endangers water, wildlife
New Mexico’s Environment Department is pushing through a discharge permit for New Mexico Copper Corp.’s Copper Flat Mine that relies on incomplete and inaccurate information and does not account for impacts to surface and groundwater. Your deadline to comment is May 4 ...
New Mexico Supreme Court upholds polluter-written Copper Rule
Rule allows pollution in New Mexico’s groundwater SANTA FE, N.M.—The New Mexico Supreme Court issued a stunning and puzzling decision in its long-awaited review of the Copper Rule. The case could set precedent for how the State of New Mexico protects water at all industrial sites. “We are very disappointed with the New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision today to uphold the Martinez Administration’s rule to weaken New Mexico’s Water Quality Act” said Allyson Siwik, executive director of Silver City-based Gila ...
Just say No to Copper Flat Mine
Allyson Siwik,
Rio Grande Chapter Executive Committee
Gila Resources Information Project Executive Director New Mexico Copper Corporation wants to re-establish a polymetallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro. The Copper Flat Mine is not the answer to Sierra County’s economic woes. Just like Grant County’s copper mines, it will be subject to the boom-and-bust economic cycle caused by volatile global copper prices and will potentially create a huge environmental liability for the public to clean up. Read more about the problems ...
Rio Grande Chapter Executive Committee
Gila Resources Information Project Executive Director New Mexico Copper Corporation wants to re-establish a polymetallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro. The Copper Flat Mine is not the answer to Sierra County’s economic woes. Just like Grant County’s copper mines, it will be subject to the boom-and-bust economic cycle caused by volatile global copper prices and will potentially create a huge environmental liability for the public to clean up. Read more about the problems ...
Tell BLM to just say “No” to reopened Copper Flat Mine
New Mexico Copper Corp. wants to re-establish a polymetallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro, N.M. The Copper Flat Mine is not the answer to Sierra County’s economic woes. Just like Grant County’s copper mines, it will be subject to the boom-and-bust economic cycle caused by volatile global copper prices and will potentially create a huge environmental liability for the public to clean up. Read more about the problems with the DEIS and proposed Copper Flat mine plan here. Please click ...
Tell BLM to just say “No” to Copper Flat Mine
New Mexico Copper Corp. wants to re-establish a polymetallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro, N.M. The Copper Flat Mine is not the answer to Sierra County’s economic woes. Just like Grant County’s copper mines, it will be subject to the boom-and-bust economic cycle caused by volatile global copper prices and will potentially create a huge environmental liability for the public to clean up. Read more about the problems with the DEIS and proposed Copper Flat mine plan here. Please click ...
New uranium mine threatens Mount Taylor
By Robert Tohe
Our Wild America New Mexico representative A December 4 public hearing by the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division regarding Rio Grande Resourses Corp.’s application to move Mount Taylor uranium mine from “standby” to “active” status raised many unanswered questions. The underground mine, formerly owned by Chevron, produced uranium ore from 1979 to 1982 and from 1985 to 1989 before being shut down in January 1990 because of the depressed uranium market. General Atomics Corp., of which Rio ...
Our Wild America New Mexico representative A December 4 public hearing by the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division regarding Rio Grande Resourses Corp.’s application to move Mount Taylor uranium mine from “standby” to “active” status raised many unanswered questions. The underground mine, formerly owned by Chevron, produced uranium ore from 1979 to 1982 and from 1985 to 1989 before being shut down in January 1990 because of the depressed uranium market. General Atomics Corp., of which Rio ...
Comment on Copper Flat due March 4
By Allyson Siwik
Gila Resources Information Project and Chapter Water Committee The Bureau of Land Management in November issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Copper Flat copper mine in Hillsboro, Sierra County, N.M. The agency has extended the public comment period by 45 days and requests comments by March 4. The New Mexico Copper Corporation proposes re-establishing a poly-metallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro. The operation would produce copper concentrate with gold and silver, as well as ...
Gila Resources Information Project and Chapter Water Committee The Bureau of Land Management in November issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Copper Flat copper mine in Hillsboro, Sierra County, N.M. The agency has extended the public comment period by 45 days and requests comments by March 4. The New Mexico Copper Corporation proposes re-establishing a poly-metallic mine and processing facility near Hillsboro. The operation would produce copper concentrate with gold and silver, as well as ...
Quarry keeps infringing on the Franklin Mountains
By Jim Tolbert
El Paso Group CEMEX continues to carve out ever greater portions of our beautiful Franklin Mountains at the corporation’s McKelligon Canyon Quarry. Not only is CEMEX’s quarrying doing irreparable damage to the mountain, but its operations continue to compromise the respiratory health of people living in nearby neighborhoods. Sadly, the red rhyolite and limestones that they quarry are overused in El Paso landscapes, roadways and medians. Texas Parks and Wildlife Attorney Laura Russell has admitted that ...
El Paso Group CEMEX continues to carve out ever greater portions of our beautiful Franklin Mountains at the corporation’s McKelligon Canyon Quarry. Not only is CEMEX’s quarrying doing irreparable damage to the mountain, but its operations continue to compromise the respiratory health of people living in nearby neighborhoods. Sadly, the red rhyolite and limestones that they quarry are overused in El Paso landscapes, roadways and medians. Texas Parks and Wildlife Attorney Laura Russell has admitted that ...
Stop the zombie uranium mine on Mount Taylor
Rio Grande Resources is applying to reactivate the uranium mine on Mount Taylor, a volcano north of Grants that is sacred to several Native American tribes and pueblos. The mine was closed in 1992 but has received four standby permits since, allowing mine owners to avoid cleaning up and reclaiming the site to protect from contaminating the groundwater of nearby communities. The request to reactivate the mine is simply a ploy to get around the New Mexico Mining Act law ...
Take action against dirty copper-mining rule
In 2013, the Martinez Administration committed one of the most flagrant violations of the public trust in recent memory. After years of work by technical experts and an advisory committee composed of stakeholders from all sides, a draft rule to protect the state’s groundwater from copper-mining pollution was submitted to the Environment Department by the department’s technical staff and consultant Bill Olson (a former Groundwater Quality Bureau chief for the department). Freeport-McMoRan, the copper giant that owns the three biggest copper ...
