Queen Creek Coalition
Meeting Between QCC and RCC (Recolution Copper Company) Abbreviated Summary
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Attendance: David Salisbury, Adam Hawkins, Marty Karabin, Mike Covington, Paul Diefenderfer, Fred AmRhein, John Keedy, Rick Cecala, Manny Rangel, Erik Filsinger, Brady Robinson

(Note: There is a deliberate attempt to report issues as stated and framed by Resolution.
Everyone should form their own judgment about the ultimate veracity of those representations.)

Changes in the Land Exchange Legislation

The meeting began with David presenting an overview of changes to the legislation.

Campground. The Replacement Campground will no longer be under USFS jurisdiction and has been removed from the legislation (Note: there is a possibility that Oak Flat Campground might not be needed for the Mining Plan and might remain. See below.) Instead, the Replacement Campground will occur as a joint planning exercise and paid for by RCM. A likely spot is the JR Ranch near the small community of Top of the World, about 2 miles east of the current turn-off to the Mine along Highway 60. They are still committed to contributing $1.25 million to the Replacement Campground.

Climber and Climbing References in Legislation. David stated that the USFS wanted all references to “rock climbing” removed from the legislation as it pertains to USFS lands and responsibilities. He stated that the USFS did not want a specific reference to a specific activity on USFS lands because of the liability reasons. Instead, there will be general language about broader recreational uses. The USFS had told him that climbing is covered by that broader language; they just didn’t want a specific reference to rock climbing.

Native American concerns. David indicated that the input he has received from the BLM is that jobs are a high priority for the San Carlos. The general area of the Replacement Campground (See below) may contain oak nut gathering opportunities.

There was a discussion, which we will not go into because it doesn’t really involve rock climbing, concerning the history of the Native Americans in the Oak Flat/Apache Leap area.

When the 3 year study occurs (under the legislation) about the management plan for Apache Leap, David indicated that rock climbers will be involved and that their history of rock climbing in the area should carry weight because it has been a historical and cultural use of the Leap and surrounding area.

Water. David said that there are two water tables that are within the Mine impact area. One is an upper water table that doesn’t seem to have much transfer to the lower water table because of an impervious conglomerate layer.

David indicated that rainfall/precipitation does not really reach either water table because only about 3% of the precipitation infiltrates. The rest runs off.

There are two drainages that are potentially impacted by the Mine. One is the Devils Canyon creek. It will have almost no impact on it. All the rest of the impact is on the Queen Creek drainage.

NEPA. David said that they will undergo a full NEPA prior to the Land Exchange becoming final. This is a major concession desired by the current administration (the QCC still would like to see the legislative language to see if there are any “outs.”)

There was a general discussion about what NEPA would mean in real life. David indicated that the process will be that RCM will take about 18 months to prepare a detailed Mining Plan of Operations. This Mining Plan will then constitute the application for the NEPA review. An Environmental Impact Study and the NEPA process will result in RCM paying (several hundred thousands of dollars) for an examination of several proposed conditions.

They will study a “no action” condition, meaning that the Land Exchange does not occur. David indicated that if the Land Exchange does not occur, they will still “mine” under their current mining claims and patents. He also indicated that they will have the right under current mining law to block cave mine “unpatented USFS lands.”

The Main Alternative will be the Proposed Condition, i.e., the Mining Plan of Operations. (He stated that Block Cave Mining is the only method that could extract this particular type of ore body.) The Mining Plan will state how exactly they plan to extract the ore, what drilling and mining plans they will use, and how they will extract the ore material and transport it to a smelter. The transportation is likely to be east toward Globe. It is not known yet where the smelter will eventually be located.

The QCC asked what the other conditions would entail. David replied that they will be looking at the alternative ways to drill (See separate discussions of Subsidence and Water), alternative ways to convey both the mine ore and the tailings, and the like (the list mentioned being pretty much all mining related items).

The NEPA studies would take about three years, after which the Secretary of Agriculture will rule on whether or not the Proposed Condition was in the Public Interest. The NEPA process will involve public input. The rock climbers, as well as any other interested public party, will be able to participate. David promised that the QCC will be notified of those public input opportunities.

Monies. David indicated that they will be spending close to $1 billion dollars on mining efforts prior to obtaining approval of the Land Exchange. He also indicated that because of the relative change in valuation of the current federal land and the private lands being acquired for the Land Exchange, Resolution may need to come up with additional monies to make the Land Exchange of equal value.

Mining Shafts. David indicated that there would be three new mining shafts in the general vicinity of the entrance to the Oak Flat Campground. This would be in addition to the three mining shafts near the current mine shaft infrastructure.

Ore Body. The current RCM analysis of the ore body indicates that it is about the size of Picket Post Mountain, but more donut shaped. The ore body rolls off toward the edges, and they do not believe, at this point in time, that it extends all the way under Oak Flat Campground. They will not know the exact position until they do more drilling and test mining, but they now believe that the ore body is only under the SW corner of the Land Exchange Parcel.

If they do not need the whole Land Exchange parcel they might revisit with the federal government the need to take the entire parcel. This could save them money and also allow the current Oak Flat Campground to stay intact.

Subsidence. David indicated that there is no alternative but to do Block Cave Mining and that subsidence will occur. He indicated that the “worst case” alternative they now are contemplating would be that the subsidence zone will be about a mile in diameter with about 550 feet of vertical drop at the middle. He used the analogy of Meteor Crater (in northern AZ), but backtracked to say that the sides of the subsidence zone would not be precipitous but rather likely more angled toward the major drop in the middle of the zone.

(QCC members reacted pretty strong to the analogy.)

There was a lengthy discussion of what the actual subsidence might end up looking like.

Specific Rock Climber Concerns

In June of 2009 the QCC told RCM that it would not be able to endorse the Land Exchange (as stated in the RCM Offer), but it had asked RCM if the climbers could get everything in RCM’s offer if it took a position of not opposing the Land Exchange, as well as obtaining certain clarifications and guarantees and adding additional climbing terrain.. RCM had stated at the time that it would consider such a position, but it would have to see the specifics that the QCC was seeking. This meeting with RCM was the first step in laying out some of those additional concerns and clarifications. The QCC had decided ahead of time to focus this meeting with RCM on five points from the October 10, 2008 Offer from Resolution. These were (with references to that document):

Item 1 under issues to be addressed by the Land Exchange legislation

The QCC acknowledged the USFS position on having general references to recreational activities versus specific references to rock climbing at the Pond, Dripping Springs, and Apache Leap South End. (Note: These USFS concerns were not addressed further because it appears that the climbing community and the USFS have reached an agreement on the intent of the language.)

The QCC asked that the Dripping Springs parcel be transferred to a neutral 3rd party, potentially a governmental agency.

The QCC asked that the rock climbers be specifically identified as one of the stakeholder groups that would be represented in the group during the 3 year planning period where a management plan would be developed for Apache Leap. David said that the reference to the Native Americans was specific due to the issues involved, but that rock climbers were covered by the general language about other interested parties.

The QCC asked that RCM consider expanding the roughly 90-acre Pond parcel such that it continue westward on the RCM lands that exist north of Highway 60 and south of the USFS lands. David said he needed to do some research into what the potential might be and what constraints there are for actual current and future mining operations over or under that additional land.

The QCC wanted to explore item 7 under issues to be covered under an amended license agreement and/or by other means. This item related to access to Apache Leap from the West side.

The QCC expressed its concerns that while RCM was promising to give access across its land, in point of fact the real issue was an easement across the USFS parcels involved in coming up the hill to the Leap. Therefore, the QCC was not sure how much value there was in an agreement that had that amount of uncertainty.

David agreed to examine and look into the issues involved and get back to the QCC with additional information.

The QCC wanted to explore item 8 under issues to be covered under an amended license agreement and/or by other means. This item related to access to Upper Devils Canyon from Highway 60.

The QCC expressed concerns that ADOT might not allow a turn-out near the curve where old highway 60 left the new alignment. Instead, it might be necessary to come off the current Mine Road after it leaves Highway 60 and then head east to Upper Devils through the Exchange Parcel.

David needs to check whether or not that area of the Land Exchange parcel will be needed for Mining Operations. If not, he stated that the language in item 8 allows for alternative alignments to be implemented at no cost to the climbers.

The QCC wanted to explore item 9 under issues to be covered under an amended license agreement and/or by other means. This item related to access to Lower Devils Canyon.

The QCC stated that it wanted to be sure that proper access to Lower Devils Canyon was secured. It also had concerns about access across the State Trust Land to the rock crags.

David stated that there will be at least two access routes to Lower Devils Canyon due to the monitoring wells that Resolution must install. An east side approach (down the current Rawhide Road) will place a monitoring well at the north edge of the State Trust Land. The QCC stated that if such were to occur, it would want the road taken down the approximate 1 mile to the edge of the canyon itself. David said that he would approach the State Land Department to investigate extending recreational roads on State Trust lands past the Monitoring well.

David stated that the other access to Lower Devils would be from the south. The existing four-wheel dirt road that comes up from Highway 177 would be improved to allow Resolution to access a monitoring well on the western side of Lower Devils Canyon.

The QCC stated that it would want all of the roads being discussed as Monitoring Well roads, and other access roads, to be drivable by 2-wheel drive vehicles. David said that that should be easy enough, unless USFS standards for grades made it impossible without the addition of switchbacks. If the road was steep and drivable to access their wells, the USFS might not want them to cut additional road footage in the form of switchbacks. He will investigate this further.

Item 10 under issues to be covered by an amended license agreement or other means. This item related to MSHA.

The QCC stated that it wanted a predetermination letter from MSHA stating that all of the climbing parcels, climbing paths, access roads, and trailhead facilities were not within lands MSHA would consider lands of “active mining operations.” This in effect would remove MSHA concerns from the climbing parcels.

David stated that they already had such a letter from MSHA. The QCC handed him the letter and stated that it was specific to the Town of Superior and a hiking path up Queen Creek Canyon from the Town. The QCC stated that they felt it did not necessarily cover the climbing areas, etc. They urged David to take another look at the letter and perhaps get an “addendum” addressing the specific climbing areas as not being under MSHA oversight.

License Agreement

Given that a number of the items above would be covered in a revised License Agreement (current signed License Agreement allows for continuing climbing for a 5-year period but is unilaterally revocable), the QCC and David discussed moving forward with taking another look at the License Agreement Language and beginning to make some changes. Jason Keith, Policy Director the Access Fund would be the primary party representing climbers in this process.

Ongoing Working Relationship