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The mayor of a small community in Arizona’s copper corridor likes to think of Superior as a town with a mine, not a mining town.
Neither can be a reality if Congress passes a bill to rescind a land exchange for what would be one of the largest copper mining operations in the U.S.
Superior Mayor Mila Besich pushed members of Congress on Tuesday to oppose the bill, saying residents cannot fully realize plans for a community center, economic development and tourism that draws on its mountainous surroundings without the mine and its financial support.
“Our strategy has always been that ore body is going to be mined at some point, and we need to be as smart as possible, and we need to actively participate in these very large and complex federal processes,” she recently told The Associated Press. “We are who we are, and mining belongs in this part of the state, whether we like it or not.”