TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Despite explicitly stating facts to the contrary, Arizona administrative law judge Diane Milhasky on Wednesday recommended that the Arizona Department of Water Quality (ADEQ) rescind a temporary individual aquifer protection permit (APP) granted to Florence Copper, the proponent of the in-situ copper recovery, solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) Florence copper project.

The judge made a nonbinding recommendation in the appeal of ADEQ’s decision to issue an APP to Florence Copper during July last year, which would be submitted to the Water Quality Appeals Board (WQAB) to make the final determination on the permit.

The town of Florence, legal representatives, Johnson Utilities and Pulte Home Corporation filed an amended notice of appeal with the WQAB to appeal the ADEQ’s issuing of the temporary APP to Florence Copper’s parent, Curis Resources.

In her recommendation, Judge Milhasky noted that Florence Copper's proposed production test facility (PTF) would not have any impact on the drinking water wells in Florence, nor would it impact the wells owned and operated by Johnson Utilities located north-west of the project.

Curis Resources, which is the subject of an all-scrip $78.9-million takeover deal by Taseko Mines, billed the recommendation as “supportive of the PTF, moving forward with additional monitoring”.

“Although we are disappointed that the judge chose to take the unwarranted step of recommending rescission of the permit even when the appellants' sole expert witness did not make such a recommendation, we are pleased she agreed that Florence Copper's PTF will not have an impact on local sources of drinking water. The APP issued by the ADEQ contains requirements that go well beyond current environmental regulations, ensuring that public health and safety are protected,” Florence Copper's executive VP and general counsel Rita Maguire said.

The ADEQ's APP had for the past 25 years required permittees to meet stringent water quality standards and demonstrate that they were using the best-available technology to control solutions discharged to an aquifer.

"We are pleased that the [administrative law judge] sustained only a limited number of the issues raised in the appellants' complaint. Most of these remaining issues involve additional monitoring requirements and geochemical analysis, which have already been addressed in our pending underground injection control (UIC) permit application before the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and we believe that the WQAB will take this into consideration when it makes the final determination on the permit," Florence Copper president and GM Dan Johnson said.

Florence Copper stressed that it had always been committed to the highest level of regulatory protection and that it was confident that it could address each of the issues identified in Judge Milhasky's recommendation to the WQAB.

The company stated that it intended to move forward in the near future with the PTF, which would be a test programme that would demonstrate to local residents and regulators that in-situ copper recovery was a safe and technically-advanced method of copper recovery.

Curis last month explained that the friendly tie-up with Taseko would ensure access to existing financial resources to guarantee the funding and development of the Florence project, adding that advancing Florence through the permitting, construction and commissioning phases would be greatly aided by the depth and breadth of experience of Taseko's management and board.

The Florence copper project is an advanced-stage copper development project, which has an estimated 340-million tons of probable mineral reserves, grading 0.358% total copper at a cutoff grade of 0.05%, containing 2.42-billion pounds of copper.

The yearly production scenario is envisaged to average 55-million pounds of copper cathode for years one to six, with optimum production averaging 85-million pounds of copper cathode during years 7 to 21, and a decline thereafter.

The APP was one of two significant operating permits that the Florence project required to proceed with the first phase of operations, comprising a PTF with 24-wells for in-situ copper recovery and a SX-EW system that would produce copper cathode. The second permit was the UIC permit, which was in the final stages of review by the EPA.