Rosemont backers bask in copper price jump
By John Collins Rudolf · April 17, 2009 · Print This Article
Copper prices jumped 55 percent after plunging last fall. (John Collins Rudolf / TZR)
Copper, after dropping to a low of around $1.40 per pound late last year, is up 55 percent since January, reaching $2.18 earlier this week.
The Arizona Daily Star has the scoop here.
Rather predictably, the price jump has mining executives seeing dollar signs.
“We are optimistic — the opposite of it was what we were six months ago,” Raghu Reddy, chief financial officer for Vancouver, British Columbia-based Augusta Resource Corp., Rosemont’s parent company, told the Star, in an oddly-phrased quote.
If copper prices continue to climb, or simply stabilize at their current level, the controversial Rosemont project, a proposed open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita mountains south of Tucson could indeed become a reality within a few years time. At present, the company projects securing its mining permits and beginning construction of the mine by early 2011.
The Footprint, Arizona environmental news blog
Having researched both the copper industry and the Rosemont project in depth a few months ago, it was always my sense that the greatest impediment to the success of the mine would be the price of copper. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that copper was at an all-time high of almost $4 per pound. It was during this price run-up that mining projects of all shapes and sizes began to materialize throughout Arizona.
When copper plunged last fall, it became clear that many of these projects were simply a product of the boom and would never see the light of day.
Rosemont, however, seems to have weathered the worst of the storm. And unfortunately for the many opponents of the mine, the only other major roadblock for the mine – the federal environmental permitting process – could be over by July 2010.
The main problem with stopping the project is simply that most of the proposed mine is located on private land. Now, either state or federal legislators could pass a law halting development of the project’s public land element.
But here’s the catch: the mining company would have to be compensated for the losses such a law would impose on it. We’re talking billions of dollars, folks. And if you haven’t looked around recently, there’s not a lot of public funds available for such purposes.
