For Immediate Release, January 25, 2021
Contact:
Roger Featherstone, Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, (520) 777-9500, roger@azminingreform.org
Randy Serraglio, Center for Biological Diversity, (520) 784-1504, rserraglio@biologicaldiversity.org
Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, (602) 999-5790, sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Pete Dronkers, Earthworks, (775) 815-9936, pdronkers@earthworksaction.org
Curt Shannon, Access Fund, (480) 652-5547, curt@accessfund.org
Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Review of Massive Arizona Copper Mine That Would Destroy Sacred Oak Flat
PHOENIX Tribal and conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service Friday to stop a land trade that would hand over thousands of acres in the Tonto National Forest in central Arizona to a London-based mining company. The Oak Flat area, considered sacred by Apache and other Native people, would be destroyed by multinational mining company Rio Tinto for a massive copper mine.
Mine just south of Oregon-Nevada line may boost Joe Biden’s energy plan
Updated Jan 23, 2021;
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CARSON CITY, Nev. One of the keys to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion clean energy plan could be a mineral that lies in a salt flat above a prehistoric volcano just south of the Oregon-Nevada line.
But the question of how to extract lithium and whether former President Donald Trump’s Department of Interior rushed a mine through the approval process could be an early test for Biden and his nominee for Interior secretary, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a record of decision on Trump’s final Friday in office for an open-pit lithium mine at Thacker Pass, which is roughly 53 miles north of Winnemucca, Nevada.
They’re on one of the front lines of the COVID-19 battle, and every day since the pandemic hit, they have stepped up to keep ASU's campuses running. They come in the form of custodians, groundskeepers, bus drivers, sign makers, nurses, police officers, IT techs and parking lot attendants. They are ASU’s unsung heroes, and here we share some of their stories.
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After completing its project analysis in December a year early the U.S. Forest Service planned to begin the swap in January. The agency denied rushing the process, although the
Guardian reported that the Trump administration pressured it to. If allowed, Resolution’s underground copper mine one of the nation’s largest and deepest would eventually collapse into a crater some 2 miles wide and 1,000 feet deep, destroying important religious and ceremonial sites. Now, facing legal action by the nonprofit Apache Stronghold for violating Indigenous treaty rights, the Forest Service has agreed to temporarily pause the transfer.
Maya L. Kapoor is an associate editor at High Country News.