For the governmental entities that signed off in early March on the Early Actions Community Investment Agreement with the South32 mining company, approval was something of a no-brainer.
South32 will be providing up to $4 million in funding for 16 projects – six in the town of Patagonia, one in the city of Nogales, and nine countywide – as a stand-alone preamble to much larger investment once the four signatories come to terms on a Community Protections and Benefits Agreement, referred to as the CPBA.
“I think the council is very wise in moving ahead with this,” Patagonia Town Manager Ron Robinson said.
John Fanning, Santa Cruz County Supervisor for District 3, feels likewise: “I’m very comfortable with this. I’m happy we’re moving forward.”
But town and county officials caution that this was the easy part.
“Now that the Final Environmental Impact Statement has come out, I think our job is going to get tenfold,” Fanning said.
Deputy County Manager Chris Young described the next steps this way: “We all get a very large cup of coffee and read the FEIS.”
The FEIS is a 759-page report issued by the Coronado National Forest that was released on March 6, triggering a 45-day public objection period. The FEIS and Draft Record of Decision identify the U.S. Forest Service’s preferred alternatives for the Hermosa Critical Minerals Project plan of operations, including modifications to the mine’s access route, tailings storage, power source, water discharge method, and monitoring and mitigation plan for groundwater-dependent ecosystems and water wells.
Analyzing the FEIS and objections and comments submitted during the public review period is the crucial next step in completing the CPBA.
“Then we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of protections,” said Patagonia Mayor Andy Wood.
While county and town officials stressed that the early actions agreement is distinct from the CPBA, the items identified in it would generally fit under the umbrella of community benefits: emergency services upgrades, community health programs and infrastructure, affordable housing, child care, a parks and recreation master plan, and an expansion of the Patagonia Town Hall.
The early action items were identified in a “gap analysis” by the University of Arizona that highlighted significant needs in services and infrastructure in Patagonia, Nogales and the county. The priorities were fine-tuned by topic-specific focus groups.
“The main purpose is to address the quality of life for residents of Santa Cruz County,” Young said.
The expansion of emergency services infrastructure is an immediate undertaking, but a large chunk of the funding will pay for planning, designs and engineering for future implementation after the CPBA is in place.
Pat Risner, president of South32’s Hermosa Project, the name given to the mine outside Patagonia, said the early action items are urgent, high-priority needs, and it was to the benefit of all parties to address them sooner rather than later.
“In developing the CPBA, there are multiple elements to it, multiple pieces of work,” Risner said. “It started to become apparent that we needed to wait until the Final Environmental Impact Statement came out to have a good basis to develop protections. We’ve published a protections road map, but we also realized that’s going to take a little bit of time.”
While community benefits might be an easy sell, reaching consensus between South32 and the governments on the environmental protections that are needed may prove more difficult.
Patagonia resident Carolyn Shafer spoke in favor of the early actions agreement – describing it as “funding critical items that are important to our community” – but stressed the need for community input and involvement in hammering out the CPBA.
Shafer said there are some 220 pages of organizational comments in response to the draft environmental impact statement issued last June and urged a deliberative process.
“Let’s wait until final comments are made and published, talk with them (the experts who have submitted comments), and once you know what the scope of the concerns were, you can come up with protections that are needed,” she said.
The road to a CPBA has been a long and arduous one, with its history tracing back to the first meeting of the South32 Advisory Panel on the Hermosa Project in April 2021. After discussions between the panel and South32 came to a standstill, the process was turned over to the government signatories in 2024, and it is now being negotiated by representatives from Patagonia, Santa Cruz County, Nogales and South32.
Young, who represents the county in the negotiations along with Fanning, said discussions have focused on three main priorities.
“Environmental protections remain central to all discussions related to development in our region,” he said. The second item, he said, is the town of Patagonia. “It is essential that planning and investment consider the needs, infrastructure, capacity and character of the community.’
The third priority, Young said, is planning. “We want intelligent, countywide strategic planning … that will allow local governments to make informed decisions.”
The early actions agreement was presented simultaneously at public meetings of the Patagonia Town Council, the county Board of Supervisors and the Nogales City Council. More than a dozen members of the public spoke at the meetings. A common thread was the need for further community input moving forward.
Anna Darian, executive director of the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance, said she was not opposed to the items addressed in the agreement but was unhappy with the process. “We were proponents of delaying the agreements until we know the full picture,” she said.
“We were told this is not the CPBA, but it absolutely is connected, and it should be stated as such. Negotiations are all happening in closed-door meetings. It’s created a lot of fears in the community.”
Darian said she would like assurances that town officials and members of the negotiating team will meet with the environmental and ecological experts in the community. “These people are experts in their field and have a lot of valuable input to be provided,” she said. “We have to be a part of it.”
Young acknowledged those concerns. “I want to emphasize it will be a different process,” he said. “There will be community engagement. It will take awhile.”
Fanning said the baseline for negotiations is South32’s assurances that the CPBA will go “above and beyond” any environmental protections mandated by the FEIS.
“I have faith in the discussions we’ve had to this point,” he said. “There’s going to be even more focus on protections than was on the benefits. I don’t think there can be any disagreement.”
South32’s Risner described the early action items as a starting point. “It doesn’t preclude anything to come,” he said. “It’s just a collective agreement that we need to get going with so that we can take the time to get it right. It gives us space to work on that.”
Shafer, an original member of the advisory panel, believes that the local officials are the community’s best hope of mitigating the potential environmental dangers posed by the Hermosa mine. They are both more liable to be held accountable for their actions and also live here and have a personal stake in the environment.
“We’re in a nightmare scenario here,” she said. “We are forced to negotiate an agreement because our state and federal governments have failed to protect us. Our local governments are our best shot of mitigation to the largest extent we can.”
Darian is more skeptical.
“I want to remain positive and optimistic, but I will say the rush to have some agreement gives me a little bit of concern around the urgency to execute on longer-term benefits going forward,” she said.
“There’s a saying that, in any negotiations, the person that holds the purse strings holds the power.”
Shafer is more confident in the communities’ bargaining position. She believes a good-faith CPBA is not only smart public relations for South32, but financially important as well.
“Investors are more aware of sustainability issues now than they ever have been,” she said. “South32’s interest is to put out a press release saying that we have an agreement with the local governments, and their investors will say everything is fine.”
Shafer said that a final agreement must ensure that biodiversity, air and water are continuously monitored so that South32 can immediately address any issues that arise. Those measures will also protect the public health of county residents.
“We have an incredible number of earth stewards and water protectors working as hard as we can to protect this beautiful place we call home,” she said. “The county and town are negotiating with that awareness. I know how frustrated the public is that they have not been able to say anything, but that time will come.”
The Patagonia-specific projects outlined in the Early Actions Community Investment Agreement are:
- Up to $630,000 to expand fire and emergency medical service infrastructure. This would involve replacing broken signal repeaters, increasing the strength of the repeaters in place and developing a plan with a 911 contractor to ensure that communications systems are thorough and without gaps.
- Up to $300,000 to Patagonia’s town office to create space for a town marshal’s office, which would restore local policing capabilities, rather than the current contracting with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. The funding would be used to extend the courthouse building by 40 feet to accommodate the marshal’s office.
- Up to $380,000 for Phase II of the Patagonia Flood Control Study.
- Up to $500,000 to design an expansion of the Mariposa Community Health medical clinic to allow for imaging, a small emergency room and crisis counseling.
- Up to $150,000 for design and concept drawing for a day care center on town-owned property on Harshaw Road for children up to age 5.
- Up to $350,000 for design and engineering of an affordable housing project on Harshaw Road, next to the RV park. Plans call for five duplexes to house 10 families.