By Sylvia Delgado Barrett, Vice Chairman of the Concerned Citizens and Retired Miners Coalition.

My family has a long history and deep roots in Superior, Arizona. My father was born in this town, and my great-grandmother, parents and many other relatives are buried here. I was one year old when my parents moved back to Superior, and I spent most of my life in this town. I still have a partial interest in the ownership of our family home in Superior. My son, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, siblings, and other relatives still live in Superior.

That is why what happens to Superior impacts me and matters so much to me. As someone who cares deeply about this community and as a former mine worker, I am fighting back and standing against Resolution Copper’s proposed mine at Oak Flat, which will not only create a crater almost 2-miles wide and 1,000 feet deep but also exhaust and pollute Superior’s water as well as the water nearby towns depend on.

Growing up in Superior

Many may be unaware that our town has a high Latino population. The estimated population of Superior is 2,679 people, and 62% is Hispanic.

The beautiful mountains that surround the town were our playground as kids. To this day, it is still where people from Superior, different parts of Arizona and the United States, as well as tourists from around the world, come to Oak Flat to escape and enjoy the great outdoors, from camping and hiking to rock-climbing and bouldering.

Superior was the best place to grow up!

Why a former mine worker is against Resolution Copper's mine.

I was one of the first seven women hired in 1979 to work for Magma Copper's Superior project. I learned how to do different jobs at the mine, including cager, meaning I was the person who drove the cage up and down, and a mucker, taking the timber and explosives to the miners. The mine closed in 1982. Having been put to work in different jobs within the mine, I got to see a lot and experience the good and the bad first-hand.

The mining method we used back then is called cut and fill, which means that once the minerals were extracted from a particular workplace, the void it left was filled with a mixture of concrete and mine waste, making it solid so that it would never sink (subside).

Resolution Copper plans to use block cave mining, a highly destructive method, which involves drilling between 4,000 and 7,000 feet underground. Nothing will be used to fill the void once the ore is extracted, so this means the ground will cave in overtime leaving a huge hole deeper than the Eiffel Tower is tall and wider than Meteor Crater is at 0.75 mile.

A company will never give you the true footprint of destruction; they will only tell the people what they can handle…not the whole truth. Resolution Copper says destruction will be two miles wide and a thousand feet deep. Is it really? Look at what happened in 2020 with the mine at Juukan Gorge, where Rio Tinto -one of the two companies that own Resolution Copper- blew up ancient caves, dating back 46,000 years. After the destruction they said they were sorry. Sorry does not take back the destruction. Will the same happen to Superior with a “sorry” after their misspeak and destruction?

The community needs to be aware of the short- and long-term devastation and actual dimensions of the impact of this project and the block cave mining method.

These are just a few things people have to think about:

Water is life. We can live without copper, but not without water. Several studies have clearly exposed how this mine could impact vital aquifers in the area, putting our water supply at risk. We are in a mega drought and aridification in the southwest. Why would you destroy your water resources? Why would you destroy the very water that keeps us alive on earth?
Mining consumes gigantic amounts of energy. The mining industry accounts for 10 percent of world energy consumption. How would this proposed mine -which will be the largest copper mine in North America- affect our electricity? Would Arizonans experience blackouts? Would we pay higher electricity bills for this vital service so this mine can be run? This question has been asked, and no one has given a straight answer.
Oak Flat is a sacred land where Native American people still come to pray, gather medicinal plants, and perform ceremonies. Their ancestors are buried in this area. My cousin's ashes were spread there. This is a place of deep spiritual significance for many of us.
Are temporary jobs worth the health of our community? The founder of Concerned Citizens & Retired Miners Coalition, Manuel (Mango) Ortega, was very worried about the high cancer rate in Superior, specifically among people who worked at mines or were in close proximity. Many people are new to the area and don't know about these deaths, but we, the ones who have lived in Superior for generations, have experienced it and seen it firsthand. A study, Mortality from Lung Cancer among Copper Miners on JSTOR, shows “there was an excess of deaths from lung cancer in the copper miners.”

Resolution Copper keeps a communications campaign assuring it can supply the copper needed by the United States and the world to transition to clean energy. But at what cost? At the cost of destroying the very same environment we are trying to protect for future generations by going green? It truly doesn't make sense.
Special interests have a campaign to designate copper as a critical mineral, which -according to them- would help with U.S. national security and strengthen vulnerabilities against China and Russia. However, Resolution Copper is co-owned by Rio Tinto and BHP. Rio Tinto has a joint venture with Chinalco, China's state-owned aluminium producer (and Rio's biggest shareholder). The copper that gets extracted at Oak Flat most likely will be taken to China to be processed and then sold back to Americans. How is this in America's best interest, and how does this help our national security? It doesn't strengthen our world position; it weakens us.

A Call to Action.
If Resolution Copper moves forward with this project, what would be left of our town? What would happen to our community? I want my community to thrive, not to be misled or destroyed.
I encourage everyone, every Arizonan, not to be fooled by lies and false expectations. Do your own research and stand up for what is right and what’s best for the people, not for foreign corporations that want to take advantage of America’s precious resources.

Blog: The Community Must Know Resolution Copper Mine's Ugly Truth