US court upholds ruling against Hudbay's Rosemont copper project approval

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2019 ruling that overturns the Forest Service's approval of Hudbay Minerals Inc.'s Rosemont copper project, located partly in the Coronado National Forest in Arizona.

In the decision published May 12, the court said that its "panel affirmed the district court's judgment that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in approving the project.

"The panel also agreed with the district court's holding that the [Forest] Service had no basis for assuming that Rosemont's mining claims were valid under the Mining Law," it added.

The proposed mine would produce 5.88 billion pounds of copper, 194 million pounds of molybdenum and 80 million ounces of silver. However, it would also produce 1.25 billion tons of waste rock and 660 million tons of tailings. Hudbay proposed to dump the waste rock onto 2,447 acres of National Forest land, on which the company has mining claims to an average depth of 700 feet.

The court document pointed out that the Forest Service might have either assumed that the company's mining claims on that land were valid or did not inquire into the validity of the claims.

Meanwhile, Hudbay said that it will pursue its alternative plan to advance its Copper World project, located on patented mining claims adjacent to Rosemont, as it reviews the court decision.

The company said that it "expects it will be able to pursue the federal permits within the constraints imposed by the decision, if any subsequent appeals are not successful."

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