"Massive Copper Mine Tests Trump's Push To Slash Regulation"

"SUPERIOR, Arizona - Rio Tinto's proposed Resolution Copper Mine in Arizona would tunnel 7,000 feet underground, where rocks radiate heat from the earth’s molten core. It would suck up enough water to supply a city and leave a crater a mile and a half wide and 1,000 feet deep.

Planned for more than a decade, the project would be a prototype for a looming era of more invasive U.S. mines as companies run out of easy-to-reach deposits, geologists say. It is also the project President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, had in mind as he began crafting a "hit list" of regulations that should be killed to speed industrial permitting.

"A company shouldn't have to be hundreds of millions of dollars into risk money without knowing whether there is a real chance it is going to get approved," Ross told Reuters in a May 9 interview, referring to the mine.

The massive project - which would be among the world's largest copper mines - underscores the dangers of weakening America's rigorous permitting process at a time mining endeavors are becoming increasingly complex and environmentally risky. And Ross's citation of Resolution as a poster child for suffocating regulation reflects how far the Trump administration is willing to go to advance economic growth. "

Emily Flitter reports for Reuters July 13, 2017.