Mining firms eye prospects in Santa Cruz County

Today, the rutted, rocky road leading to the mine is death on a vehicle's suspension system, and at times is joined by a neighboring wash. You can see the arched openings into the old, dank mining shafts, caves and tunnels, many bearing signs warning people to stay out.

But now this mine symbolizes potential rebirth for mining in Santa Cruz County, thanks to the high metal prices that have revived interest in mineral exploration across Arizona.

Hardshell is one of three proposals to improve roads or drill holes to explore for minerals, mainly copper and silver, that have been approved or are pending before the U.S. Forest Service in Santa Cruz County.

Actual mining on these sites is a few to 10 years away if it ever occurs, company and federal officials say. For the most part, company officials say they don't know if their mines would be the more-controversial open-pit variety or underground.

After working 60 years in the mining industry, Tom Congdon of Denver-based White Cloud Resources said he knows "the chances are 1 in 5 that there's anything there anyway." The company plans to drill for copper in the Patagonia area.

But the possibility of future large-scale mining has galvanized opposition from the entire Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and a number of residents.

They worry about mining's effect on traffic, property values, wildlife, water supplies and the region's tourist-based economy in general — particularly if companies build open-pit mines that uproot the landscape with promises to reclaim it after the mine is played out.

But those supporting mining say failure to mine Southern Arizona resources will make this country more dependent on foreign minerals.

Quentin Lewton of Patagonia said he decided to oppose mining last spring after spotting a series of claim stakes sticking from the ground along Harshaw Road south of Patagonia, which passes the Hardshell site.

"This range is pretty intact," said Lewton as he walked along the site's dirt road that is overlooked by juniper, piñon and oak trees. "I hated to see it turned inside out. I think there is value here as an area that develops for people with recreation, with clean water and clean air."

Road work is scheduled to begin as early as today at the Hardshell mine, where Canadian-based Wildcat Silver Corp. wants to improve access to old, private mining claims. The mine, lying next to Harshaw Road six and a half miles south of Patagonia, was mined for silver starting in the late 1870s.

About 53 million ounces of silver, along with zinc, copper and manganese, could be mined from the area over 13.6 years, according to a preliminary study done for Wildcat Silver. It has the same Vancouver, British Columbia, street address and some of the same officers and board members as does Augusta Minerals, owner of the proposed open-pit Rosemont mine in Pima County's Santa Rita Mountains.

Once road work is done, the company will drill to confirm previous owners' ore discoveries and see if there's potential for more minerals, and undergo a detailed environmental review, said Richard Ahern, a Forest Service geology and minerals program assistant in Tucson.

The other two exploration operations are targeting primarily copper deposits in the southern Patagonia Mountains, a few miles north of the Mexican border.

In addition, a tiny turquoise mine is using a backhoe to remove a turquoise-based chalk from the ground.

Earlier this year, the mining giant BHP-Billiton Corp. looked briefly at the possibility of exploring the scenic San Rafael Valley in this area for copper. It pulled out after area ranchers balked at giving the company access to their wells for testing, and tests of public wells led the company to conclude that the area wasn't promising.

No one has opposed the turquoise mine. It's only about 900 square feet. But after hearing concerns about larger mines from about 20 or 30 locals, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution last month urging Congress to withdraw all federal land in eastern Santa Cruz County from mining.

If Congress banned mining on existing claims as well as future ones, it could cost federal taxpayers big bucks to compensate mining companies that have filed more than 8,500 combined-acres-worth of claims on the three Santa Cruz sites.

But it could cost Santa Cruz County taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to improve the area's roads enough to handle the large dump trucks that would carry mineral ore from these mines, said Manny Ruiz, who chairs the county board.

"My hope is that maybe Congress can buy them out and make it part of the natural resources down there. I know mining has been vital to the economy of the state, but at the same token, things change," Ruiz said. "When you are creating more traffic on a narrow highway, my concern is for the safety and well-being of residents that use the freeway and the tourists who come and visit our community."

Reclamation is another issue raised by Lewton and Zay Hartigan, president of the San Rafael Valley Association, which represents landowners in the valley lying southeast of Hardshell.

They're concerned about what will happen to the silver mine's natural surroundings if silver prices drop and the company shuts down — "and they abandon it after shredding the place," Lewton said. "They will not have set aside enough money for restoration and recovery."

The Forest Service's Ahern, however, said that he can give much better assurances that new mines will be reclaimed because the agency now imposes bonding requirements on mining companies, and he typically charges a bond 30 percent higher than what is calculated to be the expected reclamation cost.

Hartigan says, however, that the local community is realizing now how little is left in the way of unspoiled natural areas and how hard it will be to keep it preserved.

Fleetwood Koutz, a consulting geologist to Wildcat Minerals, traces much of the opposition to mining from "newbies" who seek to keep undesirable land uses out of their backyards after moving from out of state.

"A lot of these people come in in the last 10 to 20 years, and expect that mining will change their world," Koutz said. "Of course it will. It's like moving into an area near an airport and then complaining about airport noises."

Jo Christensen, who grew up in a Patagonia-area mining camp, said she doubts opponents will be able to do much to fight mining until the 1872 Mining Law is changed. The law doesn't allow the Forest Service to declare an area unsuitable for mining. The service can impose reclamation requirements and environmental rules on a mine but can't charge royalties.

"It breaks my heart to think of what will happen to Patagonia and environs if these mining companies are allowed to develop as they are planning," said Christensen, who hikes daily in the area near the Hardshell mine. "Large ore trucks will constantly travel on our narrow dirt roads, scenic Route 82 will not be able to handle this additional traffic, wildlife will disappear and the beautiful Sonoita and Harshaw creeks will dry up."

But Herb Duerr, a consultant for Four Metals, said he wonders why Patagonia nature lovers aren't as concerned about illegal immigration traffic and drug runners as mining. When he traipses the Patagonia Mountains, he finds trails in nearly every ravine and ridgetop that are littered with garbage and human waste, he said.

"While I have worked down in this area over the past few months I have been stopped numerous times by Border Patrol officers with automatic guns. The officers either had them drawn when approaching or flanked my vehicle with drawn guns behind me while a fellow officer approached with his holstered gun. What kind of message does this send to the eco-tourists?" Duerr said.

Did you know?

From the 1880s to the 1980s, about 3 million tons of rock were mined in Santa Cruz County, primarily for base metals such as copper and precious metals such as gold and silver.

Totals mined include 271 million pounds of silver, 268 million pounds of lead, 58 million pounds of copper, 15.5 million ounces of silver, 82,000 ounces of gold and 3,000 pounds of uranium.

The total is less than 1 percent of all tonnage mined statewide in that period, but the county did produce more than 10 percent of all lead and zinc mined statewide.