Coronado National Forest (FS) has begun work on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the South32 Hermosa Critical Minerals Project.
This EIS is required because South32 intends to expand mining on their private lands in the Patagonia Mountains into the public Coronado Forest. The EIS will outline the status of the environment in the affected area, provide a baseline for understanding the potential consequences of the proposed project, identify positive and negative effects for the environment, and offer alternative actions or inaction.
The FS opened a “Scoping Window” on May 10, the first step in preparing the EIS and the first opportunity for the public to submit comments and concerns about the impacts of the project.
On May 20, the FS held a public scoping meeting at Patagonia Union High School, employing an “open house” format. At least 16 FS employees in uniform, as well as numerous contract employees, staffed information tables covering the NEPA process and tips for writing comments; water quality; geology, minerals and soil; wildlife, fish and rare plants; traffic, public health and safety; noise; fire, fuels, range and vegetation; cultural resources; recreation, special uses, and scenery; climate change, air quality, environmental justice and socioeconomics; the 138kV Transmission Line; and South32’s Hermosa Mine plan of operations. (An online tour of the meeting’s informational posterboards is available at hermosacriticalmineralseis.com in English and Spanish. Other information, including project overview, timeline and supporting documents, is available at this FS website.)
The FS provided two tables for the public to fill out written comments, and one table with eight computers to provide electronic comments. FS Public Affairs Officer Starr Farrell said there were 91 participants at the event, with the FS receiving 22 digital comments and 17 written comments on site.
The current 30-day public comment period is set to expire on June 10, despite public requests from the Town of Patagonia, Santa Cruz County and Congressman Raul Grijalva to extend the period.
Kerwin Dewberry, Coronado FS Supervisor lead under the FAST-41 program, told the PRT at the May 20 PUHS meeting that a final decision on an extension has not been finalized and he wanted to see how the current scoping public meetings played out.
Comments can be submitted online until one second before midnight Mountain Standard Time on June 10 using the Public Comment Form at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=65668.
You can view the 176 comments received to date at https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/ReadingRoom?List-size=25&Project=65668&List-page=1
Because manganese exploration is contained in the Mine Plan of Operation, some of which will occur on or under FS lands, the public can comment to the FS with their concerns during the current scoping period. Since no decision has been made on the siting of the manganese processing plant, comments on the plant are excluded during the current scoping period.
Going forward, the FS is scheduled to finalize issues of concern to be analyzed in the EIS by May, 2025.
The next open comment period will be a 45-day window from May 9-June 23, 2025, when the public will be able to comment to the FS on the draft EIS. Another public open house will be conducted during this period.
The final draft of the EIS is scheduled to be completed in January, 2026. The public will then have 45 days—from Feb. 6, 2026 to March 23, 2026—to review the final EIS and file objections. Objections will only be considered from people who provided comments during one or both initial comment periods.