Tucson mining crater from Canadian meteor

Mining is all about colonialism.  If you define colonialism as taking the resources of a poor country and sending them back refined product.  Consider these examples of mining colonialism:

• South Africa, via Anglo American, colonizing Alaska and the Pebble Mine (for the benefit of a blogger like me)
• Australia colonizing the South African wild coast for titanium (for the benefit of bikers like me)
• Canada colonizing Tucson and mining copper craters (somebody needs their copper)

In a strange, but insightful piece at the blog  Observing Tucson and the Greater Arizona Community, we read of the Canadian-inspired mining crater.  There is much that is different in this blogger’s perspective.  He writes about Rosemont Copper and their proposed copper mine to the south of Tucson.  He muses about American use of imported copper as compared to United States’ copper independence.  He worries about the NIMBY syndrome and the need to control mining yourself to control potential negatives.  It is a perspective I have not seen before and worth your while if you are a student of mining. 

Here are his concluding paragraphs on the issue of should Tucson let Rosemont mine copper just south of town or should they send them to the colonies: 

Of course, there is going to be another big hole in the earth, which will not be directly visible from the road (highway 83) but will be hidden behind a nice, neat pile of gravel and grass. The options are three:

Option one; follow the current American method and make the miners go dig in third-world countries, where the environmental restrictions are lesser. With this option, our backyard stays pristine(er), but the earth get dirtier overall.

Option two; dig the hole, get the copper for our new laptops and houses, pay attention to what our lifestyle does to the planet and think about it when we chose to consume. Have the effects in our face, and the mine right here where we can be sure it will be done cleanly.

Option three; mine the largest, purest copper deposit in the area; our houses. If you don’t want to mine the earth for minerals, take your copper wires out of your walls, the ceiling fans and alternators and put them in a pile at the curb. If you don’t want copper, you shouldn’t be made to have any.