Opinion: Arizona needs Copper World copper, but must protect water and air

Look at a satellite time-lapse of the Santa Cruz Valley south of Tucson from 1984 to 2022, and the divide is hard to miss.

West of Interstate 19, the Sierrita Mountains are carved into vast terraced pits and geometric tailings ponds. East of the highway, the Santa Rita Mountains remain unbroken desert terrain. That eastern slope is where Hudbay Minerals plans to build its Copper World and Rosemont complex, and the company should be allowed to move forward, provided state and local regulators lock them into strict, legally binding operating conditions.

The argument for digging into the Santa Ritas starts with basic math. Replacing gas vehicles with electric models, upgrading regional power grids, and building out solar farms require millions of tons of new copper. When I asked my roommate Charlie Shafer, a central Phoenix native, why copper demand keeps climbing, he pointed to the obvious: "Everything is going electric, like EVs, solar panels and huge data centers. We’re building so much tech and grid stuff that we probably can't just rely on recycling old pipes."

My other roommate, Paul Mylius, put the supply problem in similar terms. "If everyone is trying to move away from gas cars and fossil fuels, you need a massive amount of wiring and battery components to make that work," Paul said. "Plus, populations are growing and cities keep expanding, so demand isn't slowing down anytime soon."

Blocking domestic mines does not shrink that appetite for metal. It just pushes extraction to countries with weaker labor laws and fewer environmental controls.

Hudbay estimates Phase I of Copper World will invest $1.7 billion, produce roughly 85,000 tons of copper a year, and create more than 400 direct jobs in Southern Arizona. Because Hudbay plans to process copper concentrate on-site into cathode sheets ready for American buyers, the project cuts out the emissions of shipping raw ore overseas.

Still, saying yes to domestic copper cannot mean writing Hudbay a blank check. As Charlie put it, "You can't complain about wanting cheaper electronics and electric cars and then say 'not in my backyard' to the actual materials needed to build them." Yet he immediately raised the central concern for any desert resident: "My biggest worry for Arizona is always water. Those mines use an insane amount of groundwater, and we’re already constantly stressed about water shortages." Paul agreed, noting he would only support a new mine "under super strict conditions."

To earn community support in Pima County, Hudbay must meet tough legal requirements before full excavation begins. Instead of draining the local aquifer near Sahuarita, the company should be legally required to offset all groundwater pumping with imported Central Arizona Project water or reclaimed municipal effluent.

Because federal courts blocked Hudbay from dumping waste rock on Coronado National Forest land on the east side of the range, the company moved its Phase I waste facilities onto private land facing Green Valley and Sahuarita. State regulators must require real-time, public air-quality sensors along town borders, backed by automatic shutdown triggers if dust levels spike.

Finally, Hudbay needs to put an upfront, inflation-adjusted cleanup bond in escrow so taxpayers never foot the bill, while working with the Tohono O'odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe to protect ancestral springs and burial sites.

We need the copper buried in the Santa Ritas, and Hudbay has the capital to extract it. If Arizona holds the company to ironclad water and air standards, we can supply the clean energy grid without sacrificing the towns living in the mine's shadow.