Australian mining giant South 32 is near the U.S.-Mexico border in search of zinc and manganese, two key minerals used to make electric vehicle batteries and other products for the growing clean power economy. plans to dig tunnels under the Patagonian Mountains.

On Monday, the proposed $1.7 billion Hermosa project became the first mine to be accepted into an Obama-era program aimed at streamlining the federal permitting process for what is considered critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in the Galiuro Mountains, about 160 miles north, Canada-based Faraday Copper Company is gathering real estate to develop open-pit and underground copper mines in steep hills 16 miles from Mammoth.

Faraday touts the site as “one of North America’s largest untapped copper resources,” with an estimated output of 4.2 billion pounds of copper and a net worth of $713 million.

South32 officials said the Hermosa property sits on top of one of the world’s largest undeveloped zinc deposits and is the only viable location in North America to produce manganese for batteries from local ore. says it is possible.

Both of the proposed mines are in historic mining districts dating back to the 1800s, but neither site has seen significant activity for decades.

South32 spokeswoman Jenny Fiore-Magaña said the company plans to make a final decision on whether to proceed with underground mining in the Patagonian Mountains later this year. If developed as planned, the project will be the largest investment in Santa Cruz County history.

The company acquired Hermosa in 2018, and the following year began a voluntary restoration at a site about nine miles southeast of the town of Patagonia to remove historic mining waste left by previous owners.

Fiore Magaña said initial mining operations could take place on private land owned by the company without a federal permit, but “to fully develop the project will require several activities involving surrounding federal land. Therefore, a federal review is required.”

Hermosa hopes to quickly obtain the necessary permits from the US Forest Service and others. Recently added to FAST-41a comprehensive federal infrastructure review program created by the bipartisan Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act signed by President Obama in 2015.

South32 operates 11 mines on three continents and is the world’s largest producer of manganese ore. The company says it hasn’t mined manganese in the United States since the 1970s, and that it’s entirely dependent on foreign supplies.

Manganese and zinc are both designated as important minerals by the US Geological Survey. President Biden has authorized increased domestic mining and processing of manganese and four other strategic minerals under the Defense Production Act to strengthen the supply chain for high-capacity batteries.

“In some ways, it’s a mad battle between critical habitats and critical minerals,” says Russ McSpadden, a Southwestern conservationist at the Tucson-based Center for Biodiversity.

The Patagonia Mountains are home to many rare and protected species that could be affected by large-scale mining, including the ocelot, the Mexican spotted owl and the Pima pineapple cactus, McSpadden said.

The Hermosa mine also threatens to further disrupt critical habitat for some of southern Arizona’s most elusive inhabitants. “We’ve been fighting for 20 years to protect jaguars in our borderlands,” said McSpadden, but he’s seen developments like this slowly ‘break apart’ protected areas. was only

Still, he said the Rosemont Mine Expansion and Resolution Copper Project in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson are getting the most attention from the National Conservation Group, so the two newest mining projects in southern Arizona have so far. He said he has mostly “stayed out of sight”. Located in Oak Flat east of Superior.

As a result, local conservationists have objected to the project.

Carolyn Shaffer is president of the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance, a local nonprofit dedicated to protecting the natural areas around and in the small town 90 miles southeast of Tucson.

For years, these small volunteers have been fighting plans to open a mine in the mountains of Patagonia. They are concerned about how the pollution, noise, dust, traffic and groundwater pumping associated with such projects will affect their communities and the valuable wilderness around them.

“The health and economic prosperity of our region are deeply linked to the well-being of the Patagonian Mountains and Sonoita Creek Basin, which depend on our drinking water, clean air, and our region’s nature-based economy. It’s a source of biological wealth that drives biodiversity,” Schaeffer said.

If the Hermosa mine had to be built, it would be responsible, transparent and rigorous to ensure that the owner would be held accountable “to avoid short-sighted destruction of natural resources in the pursuit of corporate profit”. It must be built under supervision, she said.

Given the choice, however, Mr. Schaefer would prefer that nothing be built.

“These mountains definitely contain a lot of minerals, but these mountains are also rich in many wildlife species,” she said. “The first principle of responsible mining should be that there are places that should not be mined.”

It’s unclear what federal reviews and permits the Copper Creek project will require.

A promotional video released earlier this month by Faraday shows as many as six open pit mines about 55 miles northeast of Tucson. The video also shows a large underground block cave mining operation that eventually created a large sinkhole next to the pit. At the long-closed San Manuel copper mine.

In March, Faraday announced it would purchase the ranch surrounding the proposed project.of $10 million deal with Mercer Ranch The site included 6,000 acres of private property and 32,000 acres of grazing land along the eponymous creek in Pinal County.

The company said the Mercer family will continue to operate the ranch on the property.

In an online project overview, Faraday explained that the area around Copper Creek is “politically safe” with access to established mining infrastructure.

For environmentalist Peter Else, who lives on the San Pedro River outside Mammoth, that sounds just right.

“We grassroots conservationists are still in the minority,” he says.

Others are concerned about the impact on Copper Creek and the surrounding area from groundwater withdrawal, heavy equipment use and “endless truck traffic” as ore is removed from the mine for off-site processing.

He said the project would also disrupt migration corridors for wildlife migrating between the Galileos and Catalina mountains via the Lower San Pedro Valley.

Ironically, one of the lands most likely to be affected by this mine is a ranch along the San Pedro River near Mammoth, which sold the controversial Oak Flat site as part of a 2014 land swap. It was set aside to ease the security of the land given to Resolution Copper.

Alternatively, he said, the old 7B Ranch and its 800-acre Mesquite Bosque lie down the slopes of the mine, downstream where Copper Creek empties into San Pedro. As a result, land that would otherwise offset the damage from one mining project can be endangered by another.

“These mitigating designations get downgraded every time this happens. It’s a really sad situation,” Els said. “How do you mitigate the impact on dedicated mitigation land? I don’t think you can.”

But he also said many of his neighbors in a quiet corner of Pinal County would welcome the construction of a large new mine in the area, even if the benefits were temporary and the drawbacks not. I also know that I am deaf.

“Certainly, the mammoth economy will pick up, but if the mines fail, they will leave again,” he said, or shut down due to falling copper prices. It’s a common cycle in Arizona’s mining regions, and communities in boom and bust situations can end up being left with more than just chaos to clean up.

“This is a story that repeats itself over and over again in the Lower San Pedro Valley,” Els said. “It’s a really sad situation.”