A proposed mine in southeastern Arizona is pitting environmentalists and tribes against groups who say this would be a massive economic boon for the state.
The Rosemont Mine would be one of the largest in the country, a mile-and-a-half deep, a mile wide, a waste pile the height of a skyscraper.
Native American tribes and environmental groups have sued to stop the mine’s development, but the state Chamber of Commerce argues it will create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in the region.
Anita Snow with the Associated Press wrote about the battle recentlyand went to the region where the mine could be built along scenic Arizona Highway 83, through rolling grasslands and ocotillo forests with the Santa Rita Mountains as a backdrop.
The area is also burgeoning wine country, where a dozen or more local wineries are taking root. Those vintners are some of the people who are not happy about the impending mine, which, she says, would be massive.
