Hudbay Minerals today announced that it filed its initial brief against a decision made by the US District Court of Arizona in July 2019 to stop the construction of Rosemont copper project and revoke the US Forest Service’s final record of decision issued in June 2017.
The company claims the court has misinterpreted federal mining laws and forest regulations while deliberating the Rosemont case. The district court determined that forest service mining regulations do not apply to mining activities unless they are conducted under valid mining claims. However, contrary to this, Hudbay asserts that mining activities, like ore processing and tailing storage, can be conducted in an open forest.
The US Federal Government’s also filed an initial brief about this last week against the District Court’s decision. Hudbay’s brief was filed following the government’s brief explaining how both the company and government believed the court misinterpreted the federal mining laws and forest service regulations as applied to Rosemont.
The firm expects final decision on appeal to be processed by late next year and believes that if the decision is not reversed it will disrupt the longstanding policy of the US Federal Government.
Rosemont is expected to be the largest copper mines in the US and will drive great economic activities and high paying jobs in the region once it starts construction.