Two Forest Service-approved exploratory drilling projects in the Patagonia Mountains began onsite actions last fall. One is the Canadian exploratory company Barksdale Resources’ Sunnyside Exploration Project. The other is the Australian mining company South32’s Flux Canyon Exploration Project. Both projects lie within their owners’ unpatented claims in the Coronado National Forest (CNF) and both have drainage into Alum Gulch and Flux Canyon watersheds, which are mining-impaired tributaries of Sonoita Creek.
SUNNYSIDE
Barksdale’s 1,800-acre Sunnyside Project is the larger of the two projects, including all of Humboldt Canyon, the headwaters area of Flux Canyon. The project includes four historic mines – Humboldt, Red Bird, Sunnyside and Volcano—along with two other major prospects, Standard and Thunder. The primary historical product of mines in this area was copper, with some silver.
The Sunnyside Project is one of Barksdale’s four prospecting areas in the Patagonia Mountains. The others are smaller and lie to the south and southeast of Sunnyside. The metals of interest are copper, zinc, lead and silver. Sunnyside’s drilling is expected to extend to the Hermosa Project’s Taylor Deposit.
Deeper still, and below the Taylor Deposit, Barksdale expects to intersect the westward extension of South32’s Peake Deposit, the deepest known deposit in the Patagonia Mountains, with a possible depth of more than 6,000 feet.
Sunnyside bore holes might be drilled to an ultimate depth of 6,500 feet. Sunnyside’s first hole, in Humboldt Canyon, reached 5,423 feet and cores have been assayed for mineral content. That project was put on hold in February, as the company seeks other subcontractors to implement the specialty drilling approach they have in mind.
Although the Sunnyside project has approval for up to 30 pads and about seven miles of new road construction, the company plans to move slowly, and drill for up to seven years, with no more than two rigs operating at once. Beyond the end of drilling activity, up to a year is planned for reclamation work.
The south half of the Sunnyside project is accessed via Forest Service Road 4701 off Harshaw Road, while the north half uses Flux Canyon Road. Sunnyside has not yet used FS roads 215 or 5519, which are permitted for access, nor has it gone beyond surface regrading to create any new roads. To date, the project has a small footprint.
FLUX
The much smaller Flux Exploratory Project is centered on the historical Flux Mine, a lead and silver producer. The Flux Project was permitted for seven drill sites and, at this time, has drilled on four of them. Remediation work has begun on both the new access roads and on the pads.
So far, the Flux Project has cut short access roads to four new pads, and finished drill work on them. There is one other drill site in use in the vicinity of the Flux Project, but not part of it. Below its work around the Flux Mine, South32 has revived and expanded a historical drill pad below Flux Canyon Road and on the Alum Gulch side, about 1/2 mile above the residential area. It’s on a single patented claim of roughly 20 acres, surrounded by National Forest lands. As with drilling at the Hermosa Project’s patented claims, current law requires no permits on patented land, so this pad is not mentioned in the CNF project documents, nor is it close enough to a watercourse to trigger the Corps of Engineers’ requirements.
EFFECTS AND LEGAL APPEAL
Both projects have a kind of emission not mentioned in the Federal permit: light. The strong lights of drill rigs were observed in October and November from two residential areas north of Patagonia. These incidents of light trespass would at first seem worthy of enforcement, but because the drilling is in the Coronado Natl. Forest, it originates on Federal land. Santa Cruz County’s zoning and development code on outdoor lighting regulations currently exempts mining companies from these regulations. The code concludes that “Voluntary compliance with the intent of this Article at those facilities is encouraged.”
Ground remediation measures, sketched out in the FS permit for drilling at the Flux Canyon Project have begun at three of its four pads. This type of remediation consists of shaping the dirt like the original landforms, scarifying and adding straw to the surface, adding native plant seeds, and placing slash, mostly branches, in slopes that might otherwise erode and remain bare.
On June 21, 2023, an appeal was filed against the Forest Service for wrongful issuance of the two exploratory permits, citing the CNF’s inadequate consideration of ecological and wildlife damage. The permit had asserted that the drilling and related disturbances were not consequential enough to require an Environmental Impact Statement. The case also cites the agency’s failure to consider “cumulative impact” of the projects, which they are mandated to do under NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) for projects of this proximity. (The separation between the two projects is estimated to be 990 feet in a mountain range approximately 12 miles long.)
The plaintiffs requested an injunction to halt the drilling, but that injunction was denied. The court has not yet assigned a date for hearing that case.
The plaintiffs in this case are a collective of eight national and local conservation groups: Patagonia Area Resource Alliance (PARA), Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, Friends of Santa Cruz River, Friends of Sonoita Creek, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, and Tucson Audubon Society. They are represented by three attorneys from Earthjustice and the Western Mining Action Project.
Editor’s note: Robert Gay is a member of PARA.