April 28, 2026
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: John Dougherty, Executive Director
jdougherty@scenicsantaritas.org
Tucson—Save the Scenic Santa Ritas today delivered a 1,143-signature petition to the governor’s Tucson office requesting her to stop tomorrow’s auction of 160 acres of State Trust Land requested by Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals for its proposed Copper World mine.
The petitions were delivered the day after a SSSR investigation showed Hudbay failed to file legally required state reports for groundwater wells for its proposed Copper World mine.
Hudbay’s apparent violation of state law sends a clear warning to Governor Katie Hobbs about Hudbay’s business practices as opposition from Southern Arizona political leaders and citizens continues to snowball against the auction of 160 acres of state land for Copper World. The state rejected SSSR’s formal protest against the auction on April 21.
“Governor Hobbs has launched a key fight statewide to protect Arizona’s critical groundwater supply,” Save the Scenic Santa Ritas Executive Director John Dougherty said. “Meanwhile, Hudbay is ignoring state law designed to provide crucial information on groundwater pumping. Hobbs should stop facilitating Hudbay’s Copper World project and instead work to protect Southern Arizona’s water. She can start doing this now by canceling the auction.”
The governor can stop the land auction up to the moment bids are accepted. The Arizona State Land Department will hold the auction at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Tucson. The state-approved appraisal was based on rural residential values rather than industrial land and valued the property at $993,000. Hudbay is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue by acquiring the land that will be used as a waste dump for mine tailings.
“Hudbay must not be rewarded with a below-market sale of State Trust Land while ignoring state law designed to protect groundwater,” Dougherty said. “This auction is a discretionary decision by the state land department, which reports to Hobbs.”
SSSR’s investigation found that Hudbay drilled four groundwater production wells for its Copper World mine in late 2024 or early 2025. State law requires a well owner to file pump installation reports with the State Department of Water Resources within 30 days of installation. State records show that Hudbay operated the wells in 2025, pumping more than 10 million gallons. Hudbay has not filed the pump installation reports as of April 27.
The investigation also revealed that Hudbay is violating an agreement with the Town of Sahuarita. The 2013 agreement requires Hudbay to report to the town groundwater operations at its two Copper World wellfields located just east of the Santa Cruz River. The agreement requires Hudbay to replenish 105% of the groundwater it will pump for Copper World with Central Arizona Project water.
The CAP is facing major cutbacks in distributions from the Colorado River because of the ongoing drought raising serious doubts over whether Hudbay can tap sufficient CAP supplies to recharge 105% of the groundwater it will use. Hudbay’s technical reports indicate it will use more than 500,000 acre-feet of groundwater over the life of the mine.
In exchange for the groundwater pumping and replenishment guarantee, Sahuarita provided Hudbay a right of way to install its primary water pipeline along the Santa Rita Road. The pipeline, which hasn’t been installed, would connect Hudbay’s well fields to the mine site on the western flank of the Santa Rita Mountains. Hudbay is projected to pump at least 3 billion gallons of groundwater a year in an area where there is already ground subsidence caused by groundwater overdraft.
Hudbay did not disclose to Sahuarita that it drilled and operated the groundwater wells nor did the company provide any replenishment reports, according to nearly 400 pages of records released by the town in response to SSSR request for documents under the Arizona Public Records Law.
Southern Arizona political leaders have repeatedly asked Hobbs to withdraw the auction. The Tucson City Council last week voted to have Mayor Regina Romero send a letter to Hobbs asking her to cancel the auction. Tucson will vote on a resolution opposing Copper World at its May 5 meeting.
Pima County has also repeatedly requested Hobbs to cancel the auction. The county has passed four resolutions opposing open pit mining in the Santa Rita Mountains over the last two decades, with the most recent in October.
Congresswoman Adelita Grijavla, D-AZ, called on Hobbs earlier this month to withdraw the auction and take actions to stop Copper World rather than facilitating the project by auctioning land that Hudbay’s reports state it won’t need for 15 years.
“Southern Arizona political leaders know their constituents are opposed to the auction as the petition clearly shows,” Dougherty said. “Hobbs should respect their requests to cancel the auction rather than standing with the interests for foreign mining companies that intend to export Arizona’s copper overseas.”
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