Eminent domain action by City of Florence against Curis Resources may come back to bite them
“Last week the Town Council of Florence, Arizona, voted to invoke eminent domain to seize 1,187 acres of private land (patented mining claims) owned by Curis Resources. Curis also has, as part of the project, 160 acres of leased State Trust Land.
Curis is trying to develop a copper mine near Florence (see map at bottom of this post). The mine would be an underground, in-situ leach operation which would not mine any rock, but would pump acidic solutions (99.7 percent water and 0.3 percent sulfuric acid) into the ground to dissolve copper. An overlying clay layer would prevent the acidic solutions from contaminating the drinking water supply according to Curis. See my post “Florence Copper another mining controversy” for background on this story and for maps.
Curis is threatening to sue the City of Florence over its eminent domain action on the $500 million project. Ironically, the City of Florence is justifying the taking by proposing to use the land as a wastewater treatment plant, just what developers would like to see bordering their housing projects.”
DuHamel, Jonathan. Tuscon Citizen.com 7 March 2013.