"SAN FRANCISCO -- A plan to dig a vast copper mine in arid southern Arizona is pitting the needs of American industry -- and arguably the national economy -- against a coalition of local residents and environmentalists."

"Opponents say the mine will destroy an area of outstanding ecological importance and, perhaps more important, threaten the area’s most valuable resource: Water.

Both sides are actively lobbying the U.S. regulators who will determine whether the project goes ahead.

Rosemont Copper, a subsidiary based in Tucson, Arizona, of the Canadian company Augusta Resource, hopes to build the open-pit mine and a mineral processing facility about 30 miles, or 48 kilometers, southeast of Tucson in Pima County, Arizona."

Erica Gies reports for the New York Times March 21, 2012. [2]