Purchase of Old Trench Mine Pending, Lead Queen Cleanup Stalled

AZ Mining Inc / Wildcat Silver to Purchase Historic Trench Mine

Wildcat Silver, now known as AZ Mining Inc, recently announced plans to purchase the 300 acre historic Trench Camp Mine from Asarco Multi-State Environmental Custodial Trust. The custodial trust was formed as a result of a bankruptcy settlement with ASARCO and tasked with cleanup of the abandoned mine.

Mining stopped at the underground Trench mine over 50 years ago, which is located in the Patagonia Mountains adjacent to AZ Mining’s existing 154 acres of private land inholdings. The purchase “will greatly enhance AZ Mining’s surface lands for any future mining operations,” according to a press release.

The press release also stated that AZ Mining Inc “has submitted a remediation work plan that addresses the environmental liabilities with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality [ADEQ] and will construct a passive water treatment system estimated to cost US$2.6 million, excluding contingency, of which the Company’s share will be US$1.6 million.”

This would be the third time in recent history that the Trench Mine has undergone remediation work. The mine was “largely remediated by ASARCO” in the 1980’s and 1990’s, according to an ADEQ report.

More recent work was necessary after the Trench tailings pile dam overflowed with acidic water loaded with toxic heavy metals when heavy rains hit the Patagonia Mountains in September 2014. ADEQ issued six violations of state water-quality rules as a result of that spill.

AZ Mining Inc takes on these environmental issues with the purchase of the Trench mine. Wendy Russell, PARA Coordinator, told the Weekly Bulletin that she is doubtful the situation will be improved. “I’m really concerned about the environmental issues that we have with the Trench Mine, and if they’ll actually clean it up,” she said.

Highly toxic, acidic orange water overflowing from Trench Mine tailings in September 2014.

We have reasons to further question their incentives for this pending purchase. A look at the history of AZ Mining’s CEO and Board Chairman, Richard Warke, reveals questionable business practices as outlined in the documentary, Cyanide Beach, by investigative journalist John Dougherty.

Between 2003 and 2007, Warke was on the Board of Directors of Sargold Resource Corporation. Sargold owned and operated an open-pit gold mine near the small farming village of Furtei in south-central Sardinia, Italy. Cyanide Beach reveals a troubling history of Sargold’s business practices that includes:

Failure to provide accurate and timely information to shareholders.
Failure to pay vendors.
Misspending a Sardinian government loan.
Evidence of a self-enrichment scheme to benefit its chairman.
Evidence of insiders receiving excessive discounts on stock purchases.
Issuing misleading press releases.

Sargold also made numerous promises of clean up of the mine site. They even tried to leverage clean up plans for the acquisition of additional mining rights elsewhere. The clean up was never completed and the only mining that happened was re-mining the old tailings piles at the gold mine.

One day, workers discovered that the mining company had just walked away from the mine, leaving behind an unfolding environmental disaster.

Extensive supporting documentation for Cyanide Beach, including a timeline of the business history of Richard Warke, supported by thousands of pages of corporate disclosures, is posted at investigative journalist John Dougherty’s website: InvestigativeMedia.com.

This disastrous pattern of irresponsible behavior and the pending purchase of the Trench mine in the Patagonia Mountains further compels us in our on-going mission to keep our citizen watchdog eyes wide open and to pro-actively engage in protecting our water, area wildlife, and the well-being of the Patagonia area community.

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Lead Queen Clean Up Progress

The Forest Service has not yet begun clean up work on the toxic mess left behind after the Lead Queen mine overflowed in September 2014.

Final bids for the clean up work are due August 4, 2015. The Forest Service hopes to have a contractor chosen by the week of August 10, according to a telephone conversation with Eli Curiel, On-Scene Coordinator with the Coronado National Forest.

In February, the Southwestern Regional Office of the US Forest Service issued a “Time Critical Removal Action Approval Memorandum” to mitigate the spill and its potential threats to public health and welfare, water and wildlife. Clean up was scheduled to start Spring 2015, before monsoon rains could potentially wash contamination further downstream.

More information can be obtained from the Forest Service Project On-Scene Coordinator, Eli Curiel at 520-388-8413.