Preserving the San Rafael Watershed in Southern Arizona
Preserving the San Rafael Watershed in Southern Arizona
South32 is a globally diversified mining and metals company producing bauxite, alumina, aluminum, energy and metallurgical coal, manganese, nickel, silver, lead and zinc in Australia, Southern Africa and South America.
Of all the mining projects currently proposed for the Patagonia Mountains, South 32’s Hermosa Project, Taylor Deposit, is the most likely to become an operational industrialized mine within a few years. There are several reasons for this:
In 2018 South 32, an Australian mining company (a 2015 spin-off of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company), purchased the Hermosa Project for $1.3 Billion. The previous owner was Augusta Group, a Canadian mining exploration company, known locally as Wildcat Silver, Arizona Minerals and Arizona Mining.
The Hermosa Project is located in the northern Patagonia Mountains near Harshaw, Arizona. The Project is currently comprised of two ore deposits, both on South 32’s private land, the Taylor Deposit, and the Clark Deposit.
South 32’s holdings currently include:
As part of their pre-feasibility study, South 32 has done exploratory work on the unpatented Forest Service land. The work did not require Forest Service approval as it did not disturb the land surface. Although neither South 32’s Taylor nor Clark Deposits are located within the San Rafael Valley Watershed, a large portion of their unpatented claims are located in the San Rafael Valley Watershed.
In August 2020, Unisource Energy announced plans for a new Rio Rico-Harshaw Transmission line to serve the South 32 mine and customers east and south of the South 32 property.
To view a presentation about the Hermosa route selection process, click here.
For more information on the proposed Rio Rico Harshaw transmission line, click here for the Unisource writeup and here for an article in the Patagonia Regional Times.
Prior to South 32’s purchase, the Hermosa Project was referred to locally as Wildcat Silver, Arizona Mining and Arizona Minerals. This is a brief description of the “Hermosa Project” prior to being purchased by South 32. In early 2006 the US Bankruptcy Court approved the ASARCO, LLC sale of the Hardshell Group mining claims to Arizona Minerals Inc. The mining claims are patented mining claims on private property located near the ghost town of Harshaw, Arizona in the Patagonia Mountains. Arizona Minerals, Inc., a Nevada Corporation was a subsidiary of Wildcat Silver Corporation, a publicly traded company with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada and a company within the Augusta Group. Wildcat Silver later began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange as Arizona Mining, Inc. This property is the site of the Central Deposit.
Over the next 12 years, Arizona Mining Inc. (AMI) expanded its operation in the Patagonia Mountains.
As an exploratory company, AMI had accomplished its goal of finding a major ore deposit. While continuing with exploratory work and developing plans for the Taylor Deposit underground mine, AMI was also looking for someone to buy the project.
In 2017 South 32 purchased 15% share of AMI stock and became a major single shareholder in AMI. They began participating in the AMI Operations Committee and had a nominee appointed to AMI’s Board. In June 2018 South 32 announced plans to acquire Arizona Minerals, Inc. for $1.3 Billion. The sale was finalized in 2018.
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