Environmental report on Rosemont due in Aug.

After two years of delays, the U.S. Forest Service plans to release a draft environmental report on the proposed Rosemont Mine near Tucson in August and make a decision on the hard-fought project in January. The service's announcement comes after four delays of the release of the environmental report, originally scheduled for spring 2009. It was first delayed to fall 2009, and then until April 2010. It was then pushed back to end of 2010 and then again until now. The environmental impact statement has long been seen as one of the most critical points in the lengthy review of the copper project. The service cannot make a decision on Rosemont without completing the environmental analysis. That means mine construction can't start until that hurdle is overcome and the courts finish with any legal challenges to the service's decision. In its announcement Wednesday, the service said its regional office in Albuquerque and its Washington, D.C., office are reviewing an internal working draft of the environmental statement. Once that's completed, the Forest Service will then give a group of local, state and federal agencies and Indian tribes the chance to review the draft before it is publicly released...more