Opponents of the proposed Copper World mining project have moved to place a legal hold on a parcel of state land that developer Hudbay Minerals Inc. acquired south of Tucson. Save the Scenic Santa Ritas recorded a lien on 160 acres purchased by Hudbay, a step the conservation group says is intended to prevent any immediate development or use of the tract while litigation over the land sale is pending.
The lien was filed in the Pima County Recorder’s Office. John Dougherty, director of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, described the recorded claim as creating a “legal cloud” over the property that will keep it from being used while the group’s lawsuit to overturn the sale works its way through the courts. The move follows the group’s initiation of court action that seeks to invalidate the state land auction that transferred ownership to Hudbay.
Hudbay has said the purchase of the 160-acre parcel is part of its broader plan for the Copper World project in the Santa Rita Mountains and is intended to preserve other land it owns farther north as an undeveloped buffer between the company’s holdings and the nearby Corona de Tucson residential subdivisions. The company has indicated that the specific 160 acres would be set aside for the storage and disposal of mine tailings associated with the proposed mining operations.
Save the Scenic Santa Ritas contends the 160-acre acquisition gives Hudbay a more direct physical connection between the main mine property to the south and additional parcels to the northeast where Hudbay plans to locate tailings facilities. The conservation group has filed two separate lawsuits challenging the land sale, asserting that the transaction itself violated multiple state statutes and provisions of the Arizona Constitution. The contested parcel was sold at a public auction on April 29.
The legal challenges allege, among other points, that the State Land Department failed to provide proper public notice of the time and place of the sale and that the department materially undervalued the parcel before offering it at auction. Neither Hudbay nor the State Land Department has offered public comment responding to those specific allegations. Hudbay also has not issued a comment on the lien recorded against the newly purchased land; the company has, however, dismissed the litigation as a "chimera," saying the suits are wasting the resources of the group’s supporters.
Access roads and disturbed hills at the Hudbay Minerals site south of Tucson, where opponents have placed a lien on state-owned land purchased by the company.
Legal filings and recorded liens do not themselves determine ownership or the ultimate use of property, but they can restrict transactions and development until courts resolve the underlying disputes. In this instance, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas has taken the step of placing the lien while its challenges to the April auction remain active in the judicial system. The group argues that the lien is necessary to preserve the status quo on the ground and to prevent Hudbay from moving forward with physical alterations tied to tailings storage while the legal questions about the sale are unresolved.
The dispute over the sale and use of the 160 acres adds to an ongoing controversy surrounding the Copper World proposal, which has drawn sustained attention from local residents and environmental advocates. The filings lodged by Save the Scenic Santa Ritas seek to overturn the land sale on statutory and constitutional grounds; the cases must now be dealt with in court, where the State Land Department and Hudbay will have the opportunity to respond to the allegations and to seek a judicial determination. Contact Tony Davis at 520-349-0350 or tdavis@tucson.com.