Free YouTube video from Phoenix investigative reporter/former U.S. Senate 2010 Democratic primary candidate John Dougherty and
InvestigativeMEDIA
P.O. Box 644
Tempe, AZ 85280

The 25-minute film chronicles how the same Canadian mining speculators who are now seeking government permits to build the Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson, Arizona, left behind a trail of unpaid vendors, a misspent government loan, hidden investors, and a toxic mess known to locals as Cyanide Beach after owning and operating an open-pit gold mine in Sardinia, Italy from 2003-07.

Since its Aug. 23 debut at the Crossroads Theater in Tucson, Cyanide Beach has been shown more than a dozen times to audiences in Tucson, Green Valley, Tubac, Patagonia, Vail and Phoenix. Green Valley (AZ) News Editor Dan Shearer said the film “raise(s) questions that Rosemont must address if it intends to move forward with integrity.”

Vancouver, B.C.-based Augusta Resource Corporation owns the Rosemont Copper Company. The film documents the deceptive business tactics of Augusta’s top executives when they ran another Canadian junior mining company, Sargold Resource Corporation, which owned and operated the Sardinian mine.

Six of Sargold’s former directors have, or are now playing, a leading role in Rosemont Copper Company’s free-spending lobbying and PR campaign to win public support for blasting a mile-wide, half-mile deep hole in the Santa Rita Mountains and dumping 70-story high mountains of toxic mining waste on more than 3,000 acres of the Coronado National Forest.

Earthworks, a Washington, D.C. watchdog group that tracks mining on America’s public lands, is assisting InvestigativeMEDIA in releasing Cyanide Beach nationally.

“We already know that the Rosemont Mine would threaten the air and groundwater in and around Tucson with mercury, lead, arsenic and other poisons from its billions of tons of toxic mine waste,” said Lauren Pagel, Earthworks’ Policy Director. “That threat is magnified when we find out that the people behind Rosemont Copper have such a checkered business history.”

Cyanide Beach is based on Dougherty’s review of thousands of pages of financial documents involving Augusta’s officers and his on-site interviews in Italy, the U.S. and Canada. Dougherty uncovers a tangled history of cease trade orders, an insider trading settlement agreement, an investment caution warning issued by Canadian regulators, stock exchange de-listings, personal and corporate bankruptcies, and false disclosure statements to regulators. The full details can be found at the Rosemont’s Power Play tab at www.investigativemedia.com.

The six current and former Augusta directors who also served on the Sargold board include its Chairman Richard Warke and its President and CEO Gil Clausen, along with directors Robert P. Wares and Christopher M. H. Jennings. Former Augusta directors Donald Clark and Michael A. Steeves also served on the Sargold board.

Cyanide Beach reveals how these speculators conducted operations in Sardinia and raises questions of whether they now can be trusted to deliver on their promises to operate the Rosemont copper mine without depleting local water supplies, harming endangered wildlife, or polluting the surrounding environment. Their actions in Sardinia include:

Failing to pay local contractors, forcing vendors to obtain court judgments;
Misspending a $787,000 Sardinian government loan that was supposed to be used to develop an underground mine;
Issuing misleading press releases to investors, including a release that overstated gold reserves in Sardinia forcing the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange to require the company to retract the projection;
Failing to disclose that a Cayman Islands hedge fund controlled more than 10 percent of Sargold’s stock between 2005 and 2007;
Using its obligation to implement environmental restoration of the Sardinian gold mine as leverage with Sardinian government officials in a failed attempt to gain gold mining rights elsewhere; and
Failing to disclose Mr. Warke’s personal bankruptcy in regulatory filings between 2003 and 2005.

Sargold’s conduct in Sardinia left a lasting impression on its former business partners.

When asked if Richard Warke, Sargold’s point man on the Sardinia project, was a man of his word, Franco Cherchi, a former president of Sargold’s Gold Mines of Sardinia subsidiary, said “When it’s no longer convenient for him, he withdraws the promise.”

I watched this 25 minute video and it is disturbing, and does raise serious questions about Augusta Resources and the proposed Rosemont Mine in Southern AZ. For more info: http://www.investigativemedia.com/special-reports-rosemonts-power-play/

U.S. Forest Service is holding several upcoming public hearings on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement they issued in October:

•November 19, 2011, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Empire High School, 10701 E. Mary Ann Cleveland Way, Tucson, AZ
•December 1, 2011, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Corona Foothills Middle School, 16705 S. Houghton Road, Corona, AZ
•December 7, 2011, 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Benson High School, 360 S. Patagonia Street, Benson, AZ
•December 10, 2011, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Elgin Elementary School, 23 Elgin Rd., Elgin, AZ

I attended the first public hearing yesterday at Palo Verde High School, where the audience of about 300 people were overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed mine in the Santa Rita Mts. The pro-mine speakers (which I heard) said that the Southern AZ economy needed these mining jobs, and that Augusta Resources was working with the U.S. Forest Service to obtain the necessary permits and plan for reclamation of the tailings.

For my previous blog about the draft Enviromental Impact Statement (click here.)

You can comment at these public hearings orally or in writing, online (click here), by phone toll free at (888) 654-6646, or by mail to:

Rosemont Comments
P.O. Box 4207
Logan, UT 84323

Written comments may also be submitted by facsimile to (435) 750-8799 and by electronic mail (e-mail) to CoronadoNF@RosemontEIS.us. The subject line of facsimiles and e-mails should include the words “Rosemont Copper Project DEIS”. E-mail attachments should be in Word (.docx), rich-text format (.rtf), or portable document format (.pdf).

Comments are requested by 1/18/2012.

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR) is the coaliton group in opposition to the proposed mine and they are having workshops about the draft EIS. One is today in Elgin at 2 p.m. and below is their schedule of these workshops. Go to their website, http://www.scenicsantaritas.org/action.

November 13, 2-3:30pm
Elgin Community Club, 475 Elgin Road, Elgin
(sponsored by Mountain Empire Action Alliance)

December 5th, 6:30-8 pm
Cady Hall – 346 Duquesne Ave. Patagonia, AZ

December 9th, 1:30 pm
Green Valley American Legion Hall – 1560 W. Duval Mine Rd. Green Valley

December 11th, 7 pm
Quail Creek – Madera Clubhouse ballroom – 2055 E. Quail Crossing Blvd., Green Valley

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas logo

Stay tuned for any additional public hearing notices by the U.S. Forest Service.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors today appointed (by 4-1 vote) Republican freshman LD 30 State House Rep. Frank Antenori to the LD30 State Senate seat recently vacated by Jonathan Paton, who resigned on Feb. 22 to run in the CD 8 U.S. House Republican primary. District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll made the nomination, as LD 30 lies in his district. Carroll noted that Antenori had the “overwhelming support” of the LD 30 precinct committeemen/women at the recent meeting, in which he got 71 of the 77 votes on the first round of voting.

Democrat District 5 Supervisor Richard Elias stated that he was voting no because Rep. Antenori had “publicly threatened the Board (of supervisors) for political gain”, and was “heading Arizona in the wrong direction.”

Frank Antenori

Antenori, a former “Green Beret”, was elected to the Arizona State House in 2008 and had also been a candidate for the CD 8 U.S. House seat in 2006. The other Republicans nominated by the LD 30 precinct committeemen (and women) for this vacant seat on Feb. 28 were former 2 term LD 30 House. Rep. Randy Graf (served 2000-2004), and LD 30 Precinct Chairman Ted Vogt, a 3rd year law student at the University of Arizona and a former Captain in the Air Force. Graf has been reported to be a part-time consultant for the proposed Rosemont Copper Mine by Augusta Resources, and was formerly a golf pro.

With one of the two LD 30 House Rep. seats now being vacated by Antenori, a similar appointment process will be occurring to fill Antenori’s house seat.

Antenori will serve Paton’s unexpired term till November, when the general election for LD 30 State Senate will determine the winner. He has already announced his candidacy for this state senate seat, along with former 4 term LD 30 State House Rep. Republican Marian McClure
(who recently served from 2001 to 2008). McClure lead the fight against the pay day loan industry in Arizona, to sunset on June 30, 2010. She was termed out of her state house seat and ran unsuccessfully for Arizona Corporation Commission.

The winner of that Republican primary on August 24 will likely face Democrat candidate Dr. Todd Camenisch, a UA science professor and Catalina Foothills governing board member. No other candidates have announced at this time. LD 30 encompasses parts of East Tucson as well as Green Valley, Sonoita, Elgin, and Sierra Vista.

According to the Pima County Recorder’s office, these are the number of registered voters by political party registration:
LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT 30
32,125 Democrats
44,385 Republicans
718 Libertarians
125 Green
29,043 Others (Independents)
106,396 Total

3/4/10 update from Antenori campaign: He is resigning today at 12:30 p.m. from his State House seat, will be sworn in at 1 p.m. to the State Senate.