Media Advisory, March 21, 2024
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Contact: |
Carolyn Shafer, Patagonia Area Resource Alliance, (520) 405-1117, [email protected] |
Federal Court to Hear Arguments Monday on Mining Exploration in Arizona’s Patagonia Mountains
TUCSON, Ariz.— Attorneys for conservation advocates will present oral arguments Monday to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Pasadena requesting a preliminary injunction to stop two mineral exploration projects in southern Arizona’s Patagonia Mountains. In June the groups sued the U.S. Forest Service for approving the projects, which could result in around-the-clock drilling in the biologically sensitive habitat for up to seven years.
What: Oral arguments on a preliminary injunction request challenging the Sunnyside and Flux Canyon mineral exploration projects in the Patagonia Mountains.
When: 9:30 a.m. PST, Monday, March 25.
Where: U.S. Court of Appeals, Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals, 125 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105. The hearing will be streamed at: https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/live-oral-arguments/.
Who: Attorneys with Earthjustice and other members of the conservation groups will be available for interviews after the hearing.
Background
In May 2023 the U.S. Forest Service authorized the Flux Canyon Exploration Drilling Project and a month later it authorized the Sunnyside Exploration Drilling Project, both exploratory drilling projects for copper and other minerals in the heart of the most biodiverse part of the Patagonia Mountains.
In June 2023 conservation advocates sued the Forest Service, saying the agency failed to analyze the cumulative harm Sunnyside, Flux Canyon and other nearby mineral exploration projects would do to public lands, water and endangered species, including Mexican spotted owls and yellow-billed cuckoos.
The Sunnyside and Flux Canyon projects would build up to 36 well pads for drilling exploratory shafts thousands of feet deep, threatening to contaminate groundwater and jeopardize the water supply of the nearby town of Patagonia.
The Patagonia Mountains provide a key corridor for jaguars and ocelots moving north from Mexico through a border wall gap to their range in the United States. Recently a jaguar is believed to have traversed the Patagonia Mountains before being documented in the nearby Santa Rita Mountains.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
