The firm that wants to mine for heavy minerals near the Okefenokee Swamp scored a major victory Monday after a federal agency reversed its decision to take control of the review process away from Georgia’s environmental agency.
Twin Pines Minerals wants to start out by conducting a 740-acre mining demonstration along Trail Ridge, which is a hydrological divide between the swamp and St. Mary's River. But it has signaled it plans to grow its footprint, although the state has said expansion would require new permits.
The allure of new jobs in a rural corner of the state has won over supporters hoping for an economic boost. But the project is controversial, with Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals planning to mine for titanium dioxide along the edge of the wildlife refuge.
Nearly two years after Alabama’s Twin Pines Minerals publicly unveiled plans to mine heavy minerals near the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge, the company says the project is still a top priority despite potential legal hurdles, and changing environmental rules that loom ahead of its proposal.
Environmentalists hold up the controversial proposal to mine for minerals near the Okefenokee Swamp as a prime example of the lands that lost federal protection under former President Donald Trump’s administration last summer.
That rule replaced an Obama-era one that opponents criticized as government overreach and shifted the focus of the Twin Pines Minerals’ mining application from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Ga. Department of Natural Resources, which is now poised to decide the fate of the mining project.
The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday was considering whether to extend the public comment period for a proposal to mine for heavy minerals near the...
