Did they allow Resolution to distrubute information regarding the exploration, development, and potential access issues?

edit: "they" being PBB.

I'm curious what the statement implied in "to the effect that "all of the issues related to climbing have been resolved through meetings with the local climbing community." " actually was.

Suckers. See what I told you?

God, I am a prophet!

Details please?

Curt

In my personal opinion, these tactics on the part of Resolution Copper Company seriously call into question their public statements regarding transparency and honest information exchange with user groups who may be impacted by the new Resolution Copper mine.

Friends of Queen Creek – Position Paper.

The Friends of Queen Creek (FoQC) is an organization that has been formed to preserve permanent recreational access to the Oak Flat campground area approximately 4 miles east of Superior, Arizona, in the Tonto National Forest. That access is currently threatened by potential copper mining activity. It should be noted that FoQC is not an anti-mining group. Rather, FoQC advocates multiple uses of our public lands.

Oak Flat is a unique recreational area located within a convenient one-hour drive of the 5th largest city in the United States. It is also the site of the world’s largest annual outdoor rock climbing competition, the Phoenix Boulder-Blast. Although perhaps best known for its wonderful rock climbing, Oak Flat campground is also a recreational site frequented by bird watchers, hikers, dirt bike riders, campers and other recreational user groups.

The value of the Oak Flat area as a recreational resource has been officially acknowledged for many years. President Dwight Eisenhower recognized this in 1955 when he signed BLM Public Land Order 1229 which specifically put this land off-limits to all future mining activity. President Richard Nixon issued BLM PLO 5132 in 1971 to modify PLO 1229 and allow “all forms of appropriation under the public land laws applicable to national forest lands—except under the U.S. mining laws.” (italics added)

Since several other copper mines exist in this general area of Arizona, including the Superior mine immediately to the west, it seems clear that the possibility of copper ore being discovered in the Oak Flat campground area had to be considered at the time these Public Land Orders were put in place. However, as evidenced by the very issuance of the two Public Land Orders, the recreational value of this area to the public was obviously determined by Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon to outweigh its economic value as a mine site.

Resolution Copper company owns mining rights to lands adjacent to the Oak Flat campground area and they are currently planning to “block cave” the ore body found deep below the surface there. This will lead to eventual subsidence of the surface and will thereby potentially impact Oak Flat campground itself. In part to deal with that issue, Resolution Copper is currently trying to obtain the Oak Flat campground area by various means, including a possible legislative land exchange agreement. The friends of Queen Creek, The Access Fund, The Sierra Club and others are adamantly opposed to the use of a legislative land exchange arrangement involving the Oak Flat campground.

The reasons for our opposition are simple. Legislative land exchanges can effectively bypass and/or minimize any meaningful public comment regarding Resolution’s proposed land exchange and can also bypass Resolution’s obligation to deal with appropriate environmental requirements such as NEPA.

Below is some expert commentary on legislative land exchanges.

The Federal Land Exchange document prepared by the firm of Parsons Behle and Latimer of Salt Lake City says this about legislative land exchanges:

"... Legislative exchanges are not discussed in this paper because they are relatively rare and may bypass the public interest analysis, the appraisal process, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance required under FLPMA. All such issues are often addressed in the specific legislation authorizing the exchange, i.e., Congress deems the exchange to be in the public interest, and may provide that the properties are determined to be of equal value or sets the parameters for appraisal of the properties, and exempts the exchange from NEPA. Legislative exchanges quite often involve difficult or controversial issues that would prevent the exchange from being successfully completed through the FLPMA process...."

The Western Land Exchange Project, “www.westlx.org” has the following similar opinion of legislated land exchanges:

"Legislated land exchanges, several of which occur each year, are very problematic for citizen participants. These deals usually come to Congress when proponents know that they could not withstand public scrutiny. Swaps enacted through Congress routinely bar both administrative and judicial challenges by citizens. Many are swept through legislation without public knowledge or any real examination by members of Congress."

Any proposed change in status to a piece of land that was deemed important enough, by two United States Presidents, to warrant protection from mining activities, should be given full and open consideration in a forum that maximizes public input rather than one which restricts this type of scrutiny.

Resolution Copper Company has attempted to put its best foot forward and give the appearance that they intend to do business differently than other mining companies have done in the past. They speak extensively about “sustainable development” and building a mine for the 21st century. We applaud this vision and now ask them to live up to their own rhetoric. As stated previously, FoQC is not an anti-mining group. We merely want to protect and preserve access to Oak Flat campground for ourselves and for future generations. It is our opinion that Resolution needs to rethink its current mining plan and come up with a method of extracting the copper ore from their site without negatively impacting recreational access to Oak Flat.

Friends of Queen Creek
June 24, 2004