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PHOENIX, January 3, 2020 — For Immediate Release. Tonto National Forest staff will host two public meetings to discuss the Forest Service’s analysis in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Pinto Valley Mine project.
Meetings will take place on:
Ø Jan. 7 from 5-7 p.m. at Superior Junior/Senior High School multipurpose room in Superior, Arizona
Ø Jan. 8 from 5-7 p.m. at Bullion Plaza Cultural Center and Museum in Miami, Arizona
Maps and other materials will be available and forest staff will be on hand to answer questions.
According to Judd Sampson, Tonto National Forest project manager, the Forest Service looks forward to a healthy exchange of information with interested parties during these meetings.
“As the lead agency for this project, the Tonto National Forest appreciates substantive comments that are specific to the proposal and include supporting reasons for us to consider, Sampson said. “These types of comments will help us prepare a thorough Final EIS.”
Substantive comments are most useful when they:
Ø Question, with reasonable basis, the accuracy of information in the EIS
Ø Question, with reasonable basis, the adequacy of, methodology for, or assumptions used for the environmental analyses
Ø Present new information relevant to the analyses
Ø Present reasonable alternatives other than those analyzed in the EIS
Ø Suggest changes or revisions in one or more of the alternatives
Tonto staff released the DEIS on Dec. 13, 2019. A 45-day public comment period continues through Jan. 27. The DEIS, along with ways to comment, are available at: https://www.pintovalleymineeis.us/.
The mining plan of operations submitted by Pinto Valley Mining Corp. proposes to expand existing open-pit copper and molybdenum mining operations from private lands onto National Forest System lands. The proposal would extend the mine life to 2039 and consolidate prior authorizations that are reasonably incident to mining and processing of mineral resources. Expansion is estimated to produce 2.4 billion pounds of copper and 23.7 million pounds of molybdenum from 2020 to 2039. Copper is heavily used in industrial, agricultural and energy applications and is a common component of electronics.
The Tonto National Forest prepared this DEIS to evaluate and disclose the potential environmental effects from approval of the preliminary mining plan of operations.
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