Another reason NOT to mine in the American #Southwest! If we need "critical minerals," than RECLAIM THEM FROM CIRCUIT BOARDS AND BATTERIES!
Is the Southwest too dry for a mining boom?
Critical minerals for the #CleanEnergy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.
by Wyatt Myskow, Inside Climate News
Jan 28, 2024
"To understand mining in the U.S., you have to start with the #MiningLaw of 1872. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law as a way to continue the country’s development westward, allowing anyone to mine on federal lands for free. To do this, all one needs to do is plant four stakes into the ground where they think there are minerals and file a claim. Unlike other industries that make use of public lands—such as the oil and gas industry—no royalties are paid for the minerals extracted from the lands owned by American taxpayers.
"The #SanCarlosApache tribe has fought for years to stop #ResolutionCopper’s proposed mine. It would be built on top of #OakFlat, a #SacredSite to the Apache and other #Indigenous communities, and a habitat of rare species like the endangered Arizona #HedgehogCactus, which lives only in the #TontoNationalForest near the town of #Superior. The fate of the mine now rests with the #USDistrictCourt in Arizona after the grassroots group #ApacheStronghold filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing its development would violate #NativePeople’s religious rights.
"But for communities located near the mine and across the #PhoenixArizona metropolitan area, the water it would consume is just as big of an issue.
"Throughout the mine’s lifespan, Resolution estimates it would use 775,000 acre feet of water—enough for at least 1.5 million Arizona households over roughly 40 years. And experts say the mine would likely need far more.
"'By pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from the #EastSaltRiver alley, this project would make Arizona’s goal for #stewardship of its scarce #groundwater resources unreachable,' one report commissioned by the San Carlos Apache Tribe reads. In one hydrologist’s testimony to Congress, water consumption was estimated to be 50,000 acre feet a year—about 35,000 more than the company has proposed drawing from the aquifer.
"The Resolution #CopperMine isn’t the only water-intensive mining operation being proposed. Many of what the industry describes as 'critical minerals,' like #lithium and copper, are found throughout the Southwest, leading to a flurry of mining claims on the region’s federally managed public lands.
“Water is going to be scarcer in the Southwest but the mining industry is basically immune from all these issues,” said Roger Flynn, director and managing attorney at the #WesternMiningActionProject, which has represented tribes and environmental groups in mining-related lawsuits, including the case over Oak Flat."
Read more:
https://grist.org/drought/is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom/
