One man’s stance against Rosemont
by B. William Poole on Aug. 14, 2008, under Edge, Local, SpecialMine’s nearest neighbor worries about its impact
The green tint in the outcropping is copper ore. The Rosemont mine pit would be in the area in the background of this photo.
Stan Dietzman moved to a ghost town in the Santa Rita Mountains 19 years ago to escape the hubbub of city life.
The Tucson native bought 16 acres in Helvetia, 30 miles southeast of Tucson, drilled a well and put up a shack to call home. Over the years he has built his dream house near that shack, which is now his garage, supporting himself as a tree trimmer.
Now the proposed Rosemont copper mine threatens to bring all the things the former surgical technician was trying to avoid – traffic, construction, power lines, lights and noise – to his doorstep.
Dietzman, who lives closer to the proposed pit mine than anyone, also fears he could lose access to the eastern flank of the mountains via the dirt road that crosses the range.
Mine officials vow to tread as lightly as possible through the former mining boomtown.
The 20-inch water line that would run past Dietzman’s house would be buried, and the road would not be widened beyond one lane. No one’s access would be cut off, except on the 4,400 acres around the pit, said Dennis Fischer, Rosemont Copper’s project site coordinator.
“Access to the public roads – except on the 4,400 acres – would not be disturbed,” Fischer said.
But Dietzman, 55, still worries about the house and acreage he called his 401(k).
“I’ve got a half-million dollar house back there that could instantly be hard to give away,” he said.
Helvetia, which boasted as many as 300 people in the early days of the 20th century, is now virtually invisible.
When Dietzman came here, there were a couple of wood beams stretching between some adobe walls.
Now a few feet of a 5-foot adobe wall is all that remains of the town, which is rich with mining history that continues to evolve.
The defunct Old Dick, Cooper World, Heavy Weight and Curtice mines dot topographic maps of the area. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer still mines calcium carbonate there.
A black smudge on a hillside – the lavalike formation of a slag heap – marks a spot where ore was smelted. Hills are pocked with pick-and-shovel holes dug by independent miners, many of whom lived in “tent houses” that dot a hand-drawn 1901 map in the Arizona Historical Society library.
From 1899 to 1921 Helvetia had a post office. There was an adobe warehouse, school and “hotel,” which housed some mine managers and the schoolteacher. Rosemont’s proposed access road would run within a few yards of the last remaining piece of adobe wall in the town.
Life here is tougher than city life. There is no water provider save Mother Earth; no trash collector, gas company, convenience store or fire department.
“I have to go through Lloyd’s of London to get my homeowners insurance because I don’t have any fire (department) coverage,” Dietzman said.
There is lots of wildlife – Dietzman has seen bears, javelinas, mountain lions, deer, snakes and bobcats. He fears the animals would be run off by the mine and its lights, which would be visible over the ridge from his house.
There are about 15 homes near the town, and not all of the residents are against the mine.
In 2006, Robert F. Kilgore sold the 20-acre Helvetia Ranch and its 5,000 acres of grazing leases to Augusta Resource Corp., the parent company of Rosemont Copper.
Until September 2009 Kilgore can stay on the ranch rent-free in exchange for maintenance work on what Augusta plans to keep a working cattle ranch. Next year, he will retire to land he bought near Amado, he said.
He is not riled about the mine.
“If I was going to vote today, 80/20 I’d say, ‘Go ahead and put in the mine,’ ” Kilgore said.
With his ranching career winding down, Kilgore cares less than he might have years ago.
He did not decide to sell because Augusta came calling.
“I had the ranch on the market before Augusta Resource came here,” he said.
A road runs through it
There are two rough, four-wheel drive tracks through the Santa Ritas near the mine – through Lopez Pass and Gunsight Pass. Each is listed as an alternative for mine access.
Rosemont prefers the route through Lopez Pass, a one-lane road that crosses the range just north of Gunsight Pass.
“It’s not even a four-wheel drive pickup road. It’s like a Jeep enthusiast-type road where you really have to know what you’re doing or else you’ll get yourself in trouble,” said Fermin Samorano, Rosemont’s mine manager.
The road would be graded and smoothed to allow access for maintenance crews, though the improvements would allow other traffic as well. It would be an excellent overlook for sightseers to view the mine pit, Samorano said.
But the improved road could lure other motorists and mine workers hoping to avoid the drive around the mountain range from Green Valley or Sahuarita, Dietzman said.
The final choice of roads won’t be made after the environmental impact statements is completed, which mine officials expect in about two years.
“It all depends on what comes out of the EIS if that’s going to be the final alignment or not,” Samorano said.
The formerly rough and tumble road down the east side of Gunsight Pass has already been groomed and graded. A passenger car can easily climb that side, which also was a popular four-wheel drive path, Dietzman said.
Rosemont would also improve trails in the area.
To make up for blocked hiking trails, the company is paying for 12.5 miles of the Arizona Trail, which organizers hope to build from Mexico to Utah. Rosemont paid $13,000 this year and has pledged another $12,000 next year, said Jennifer Malleo of Strongpoint, a public relations company hired by Rosemont.
Some of that trail – along the eastern edge of the mine site – was originally planned for an area that would be under mine tailings, said Rosemont General Manager Rod Pace.
Main concern
Dietzman has his doubts about the plan to bury the 20-inch water main. He is afraid Rosemont will decide blasting through bedrock would be too costly, he said.
Rosemont intends to bury the line, especially if an above-ground water line would block access to four-wheel drive enthusiasts or upset nearby homeowners, Samorano said.
“It can be buried. It’s just going to take some specialty equipment, and the costs are going to increase,” he said.
The plan is to leave the water line behind for homes after the mine closes, Samorano said
“We kind of figured if we’re building something, it might as well be useful down the road,” he said.
Though the mine’s water line would be buried, the plan calls for above-ground high-power transmission lines.
A string of 90-foot towers spaced 800 feet apart (closer on steep terrain) would carry three power lines over the mountain. Tucson Electric Power would provide the power through an agreement with TRICO, which is the normal provider for part of the mine property.
The proposed power pole alignment follows the 4-mile power line that supplies Dietzman’s property. It ends at a pole near Helvetia Road.
“If they come to that pole, it’s only 180 feet from my house,” Dietzman said. “I’ll probably be able to hear it.”
The towers will be big out of necessity, Samorano said.
“It’s going to be the bigger towers because we have to carry 138 (kilovolt) line,” Samorano said.
The mine company is also exploring ways to create electricity at the site – something TEP could benefit from.
Last year, the Arizona Corporation Commission approved a plan to require electric companies to get at least 15 percent of their power from alternative sources by 2025.
Mine officials are checking into alternative sources of on-site power to augment the electric supply, Pace said.
The 300,000 square feet of roof space at the mine could hold solar panels, the mine plan says. Though southern Arizona winds are typically too intermittent to justify large-scale wind farms, the mine is also considering small-scale wind production, Pace said.
Wait and see
Though Helvetia is criss-crossed with a maze of colored flags left behind by road, water line and power line surveyors, construction there is likely at least two years away.
Many of the decisions about what to put where in the ghost town will be made after the environmental impact statement reveals the least damaging choices, Samorano said.
Dietzman would rather not have the mine at all, but if it comes he can only hope the best choices for the environment will also be the best choices for him.
“I’ve got to ride it out. I’ve got my whole life in that house,” Dietzman said.
VAL CAÑEZ/Tucson Citizen
The boom town of Helvetia had about 300 residents in the early years of the 20th century. The mines there were small pick-and-shovel operations.
A miner enters an excavation in 1963.
Stan Dietzman, who lives 1.5 miles from the proposed mine, shows how high the wood beams were on the last remaining adobe wall when he moved to Helvetia.
‘I’ve got a half-million dollar house back there that could instantly be hard to give away.’
STAN DIETZMAN, on having property so close to the proposed Rosemont mine
Kilgore
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By the numbers
• 1.1 miles – width of proposed mine pit after 20 years of mining
• 2,050 feet – depth of pit after 20 years
• 500 full-time workers would be employed at the mine
• $60,000 per year – average salary of mine workers
• 1.9 billion tons of rock would be dug from the ground
• 1.2 billion tons of that would be waste rock
Source: Augusta Resource Corp.
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On the Web
To read comments from the public about the mine: www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/rosemont
To read the mine plan of operations: www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/rosemont/mpo
Rosemont Copper: www.rosemontcopper.com
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Timeline
• 1899 – Mining boom town Helvetia, home to about a half-dozen small mines and about 300 people, gets a post office
• 1911 – Helvetia virtually shuts down when copper prices tumble
• 1921 – Post office closes; Helvetia quickly becomes a ghost town
• 1989 – Stan Dietzman moves to Helvetia
• 1995 – Asarco asks for a land swap with Coronado National Forest to make mining at the Rosemont site east of Helvetia feasible
• 1996 – Nonprofit Save the Scenic Santa Ritas created to fight the Asarco effort
• 2004 – Asarco sells Rosemont site to private individual
• 2004 – Pima County declines to add the Rosemont site to its open space bonds aimed at preserving open space
• 2005 – Owner sells Rosemont site to Augusta Resource, which – under the name Rosemont Copper – begins planning a mine
• July 2007 – Rosemont files a mine plan of operations with Coronado National Forest
• March 13, 2008 – Rosemont files a Notice of Intent, starting the environmental impact statement process
• End of 2009 – Expected completion of the environmental impact statement
• Mid-2010 – Projected start of production mining
• 2030 – Projected end of mining
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PROS AND CONS OF MINE
Pros
• The mine would bring about 500 jobs to southern Arizona over its 20-year life. The average pay would be about $60,000 per year.
• Much of the copper would be sold in Asia, which would help reduce the United States’ trade deficit.
• Rosemont Copper has pledged to pay for 12.5 miles of unfunded Arizona Trail, which eventually will run from Mexico to Utah.
Cons
• Loss – at least during the 20-year life of the mine – of a popular southern Arizona recreation area.
• The project would result in “significant adverse impacts” to wildlife and habitat, according to Joan Scott, an Arizona Game & Fish Department habitat program manager.
• The mine would be owned by a Canadian company, meaning profits would leave the country with the copper.
• Increased traffic on state Route 83
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