Rosemont will stimulate more than $16 billion in new economic activity in
Arizona and generate $350 million in local tax revenues that will be used
for local projects and services. More than 500 families that will have someone
employed there and the operation will support more than 2,700 indirect jobs.
A wise mentor and great friend who serves in the Legislature shared some valuable insights regarding mining in Arizona by telling a story regarding a recent trip he had taken to Canada. He told me about Vancouver Island, British Columbia, which has a large docking facility that is the outfeed of a mining operation.
He explained the mine wasn’t for some exotic or strategic mineral, like copper. It was an aggregate mine. It wouldn’t be the best aggregate in the world, but at least it would be a hard rock that can be used in making roads, government buildings, schools, and hospitals … in California.
“In California, as in many places where people have achieved a level of confidence and economic status, the ability to mine for the minerals is very unpopular. Mining is cloaked in a dark blanket of biased connotations and election-like smears.
Political figures empowered to take decisions on permitting have opted to reduce the ability to secure permits to such an extent that now companies go to Canada, Alaska and Mexico to secure aggregate in order to make concrete for California’s infrastructure needs at taxpayer’s expense.” One would assume that is because these materials don’t exist in California, but that is not the case. They absolutely do.
This absurdity is multiplied across the spectrum of natural resource uses in that state, with the expected results. Cost associated with a reduced supply and an increased demand is passed on to the consumer — a hidden activism tax, if you will. Pima County shouldn’t aspire to be like California.
For the rest of this article: https://tucson.com/opinion/local/steve-trussell-mining-can-be-safe-and-beneficial-to-arizonans/article_fae11858-62f8-56bb-be9b-c8d3e0423181.html