The Cost of Copper: Inside the Native Battle for Sacred Land in the Green Energy Transition
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- Опубликовано: 6 фев 2025
- The biggest mining corporations in the world want to extract $60 billion of copper in a rural Arizona community. Tensions are running high, with a Supreme Court battle imminent and the future of the region at stake. John Russell went to find out what the hell is going on.
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I’m Arizona native and I’ve never heard of this issue . Amazing journalism, audio, and video quality good job to everyone who worked on this piece. Thank you.
It's not journalism at all. It's an erroneous one sided hit piece as these type of RUclips videos are.
you should drive from Globe down to the desert, or the reverse. Some of the prettiest sites until you hit the phx area. Also beyond the salt river canyon is beautiful to drive through. Some good mexi food in globe and Superior. I used to live in Globe Miami, and drove through that land for years. See it before its gone. Nothing will stop the mines. Also Boyce Thompson arboretum is worth a day too, its in Superior.
saudis are stealing your water too
"We are all the dust beneath the carpet..." Such a profound and true statement.
She’s got moxie.
I was impressed by that young lady, too. Great turn of phrase.
Have you noticed how resources rich areas are always poor but then you go to DC and your jaw drops from seeing the wealth.
Why should two foreign companies have ANY rights here? Their nasty histories elsewhere should be a huge red flag.
Cause it does not matter if a company is "foreign" or not. Apple has it's headquarters in the Bermuda triangle and Google is technically from Ireland. Any multinational company will act the same no matter the business. Maximise profits, minimise taxes and responsibility.
Because America isn't what you think
Capitalism holds no allegiance to any country,
because the previous generations sold our country out
The story of America's cheap copper..
87 years ago John Rockefeller covertly purchased 60% of a Dutch exploration company NNGPM that in 1936 discovered both the world's largest copper deposit & gold deposit in the Australian Pacific territory of West Papua, a Dutch colony at the time. In violation of its license, NNGPM concealed the discovery & survey reports from the Dutch and the indigenous Papuan population; when the Dutch announced they knew there was gold and were searching for the mountain source, Rockefeller collaborated with the American traitor Robert Lovett a.k.a. the Cold-War Architect, togther they operated a US mining interest FREEPORT. Freeport made deals with Indonesia, and several months AFTER the people of West Papua held national elections establishing their own Guinea Council the UN Seretary General was killed & replaced by Indonesia's friend U Thant who pressed America to force the Dutch to sign the Indonesian document ('New York Agreement', see Wikipedia) asking the United Nations to annex West Papua and appoint Indonesia as the current "administrator" for the sixty years of terror & ethnic cleansing slaughtering several Hundred thousand West Papuans and shipping more than 2 million Indonesian's 3500km to out populate the surviving indigenous peoples.
Ertsberg and Grasberg were the sacred homelands of the Amungme and Kamoro for tens of thousands of years they had farmed and protected their mountain homelands but in 1968 Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. had the Indonesian military bomb the Amungme & Kamoro using American B-25 Mitchell bombers; survivors were pushed onto trucks that took them down the mountain to a new town Timika were two thirds of the survivors died from malaria that they had no immunity from. West Papuans are quite religious, highlanders and the north tend to be Catholic while the southern tribal nations are predominantly Protestant; but Indonesians are Islamic and also view non-Asians as inferior.
This is my hometown. I still live here. I work in a nearby copper smelter.
This company will NOT hire locals. They want engineers, robotics experts, and computer scientists.
I don't want them in our town.
If a local is qualified for an open position, and there are no better candidates for the job, why wouldn’t the company hire them? Why would they hire somebody just because they are a local? Why are the locals entitled to nearby minerals on land they don’t own?
@@evenodds8791 1. Locals deal with the pollution and side effects of the mine. 2. Local miners will have less opportunities to get paid. 3. I've seen miners with 30 to 40 years of experience be turned away by this mine.
@@evenodds8791 Then they should offer grants and sponsor-ships for educations to bring up the locals to be on par with that they're looking for. Both the mining companies are worth over 200 billion combined and made over 20 billion in profit in the last year alone.
It would pennies for them to make a offer saying "We'll pay full tuition for getting a education in these fields and offer you a job with the standard 4 year contract once you're done to come work with us".
@@evenodds8791 you'd be right, except the companies are deliberately marketing this as a way to create job for local communities
@@evenodds8791 Actually they DO own that land along with every other US citizen ...... We are giving a FOREIGN CORPORATION resources from We the People's Federal lands .... They get all the profits and eventually the American Taxpayer will foot the bill for the cleanup, economic damage and healthcare costs after they raped the area
The so-called "land swap" didn't change ownership it just changed the area from Federally protected land to land open to mining and they get this land essentially for free
For over 150 years, the federal government has allowed mining companies to extract hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of valuable publicly owned minerals from our public lands without paying American taxpayers a single dime. WTF should they get a WELFARE HANDOUT of land and it's resources while the actual owners, You and I get NOTHING?
Glad you're taking about this. I've been wanting more larger media creators and such to address it.
I’ve been supporting Apache Stronghold’s fight against Resolution Copper for 12 years now and I applaud you for getting the facts and laying out the timeline so clearly and accurately. This is a story of corporate greed and government corruption driving eco-destruction, indigenous g-cide, and the dispossession of the working class. This is a crucially important fight in the American Southwest. THANK YOU for reporting on it so faithfully! THANK YOU!!
I've been doing what I can, as well. Though I don't think for that long.
The Apache are right. Oak Flat is an example of what's going on large scale around the planet. We need to check these multinational conglomerate resource extractors before our planet becomes Giedi Prime. Frank Herbert was deeply in tune with not only the environment, but understood power structures, as well.
@@erinmac4750 You have no idea how happy I am to, after 20 years, see DUNE references in the wild like this. And actually getting the message. Frank would be so proud.
This story is no different than coal in Appalachia! Same freakin thing.
What a bald faced LIE... Apache "land" was in Texas--> NOT AZ until the Commanche butchered and raped the Apache into FLEEING west into W. Texas and Eastern Colorado/New Mexico during the ~1700's timeframe. Stop LYING about "sacred" blah blah blah. Apache were then MOVED to where they are today. Pure lies.
So, "blah blah blah....corporations.....eco-destruction......genocide.....working class......blah blah blah.
And then because people like YOU force prices higher because China has all but a monopoly on mining minerals, the rest of the country gets to suffer.
Oh by the way, if someone comes in an offer to build a casino all of these people you claim are suffering from "indigenous genocide" THAT DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST, won't be able to approve that land being bulldozed flat fast enough!
this kind of reporting, is thankless, very rare nowadays, and absolutely needed. i appreciate what you do. i wish i could contribute in some way monetarily, im sorry i cant. keep up the good work and know youre doing something good, be proud.
Thanks, Sad Dingus. Really.
This guy talked to 4 locals that validated what he wanted to hear, it's just the same ol lefty schtick.
@@blakek2619 it's better than what corporations/republicans do. They just make stuff up and say that anyone disagreeing with them is a communist/liberal.
Huh? RUclips and X are full of this type of reporting. Where have you been?
Huh? Wrong! This kind of slanted, leftist reporting is prevalent in the msm everywhere! Wake up!
When you realize politicians on both sides are just the face of huge corporations it all makes sense.
You said it bust guy!
👏👏👏👏
Pretty much
👍👍
Corps will lobby and show up always for public comments and will put in dozens of comments when regulations are proposed while non profits or the like will put in one. They also have money and you don't get elected without a war chest. no wonder they get what they want, they have the money to be loud and heard.
Lobbyists. Specifically AIPAC
It’s true that in central and southern Arizona you can’t drive more than 50 miles without going through one of these mining towns that have been dying a slow death ever since the mines shut down. In some cases, the ore deposits simply played out. But with many of these towns, the mining companies simply closed down operations because the price of copper dropped below a sustainable profit margin.
I was just in Bisbee (AZ) yesterday and toured the Copper Queen mine, which was started in the 1880s, using hammers, chisels, and dynamite to bore their way into the earth; and with only candles on their helmets to see by.
I had the opportunity to visit with a group of the tour guides who were taking a break in between tours. All of the guides were former miners, and a couple of them had actually worked in the Copper Queen before Phelps Dodge closed it down in the late 70s. They said that they all felt they had secure jobs and futures, because Bisbee, at that time was sitting on one of the biggest copper deposits in the world; and was in fact producing one-third of the nation’s copper supply. But literally overnight, the price of copper dropped from $1.87 a pound, to .43 cents a pound. That following morning, the miners were told that it would be their last day. The mining company simply closed up the operation, and went to concentrate on one of their other, more profitable, mining claims in South America.
The guides told me that Bisbee is still sitting on one of the richest deposits of high-grade copper ore in the world… along with accompanying deposits of gold, silver, zinc, lead, manganese, and other assorted rare earth minerals; which are essential to the battery technology that is going to power our future vehicles.
Those mine claims are still active, and the mining companies that own them are simply waiting for the right economic timing to start up operations again. When they do, the town of Bisbee will be destroyed, because now, they don’t tunnel into the earth in search of deposits… they simply tear down entire mountains and create giant, open pit mines. Bisbee will be surrounded by a wasteland of open pit mines, tailing piles, smoke stacks, and settling ponds full of toxic sludge.
And this revival/destruction will play out in all of these old mining communities that are still sitting on top of rich deposits of ore. And the good, high paying jobs will not go to the locals; they will bring in engineers, technicians, and other specialists from all over the world to fill those positions. The locals will be operating heavy equipment and performing the unskilled, manual labor.
It will not be good for anyone but the mining companies. And anyone who’s thinks that our new, Shadow President, Elon Musk will not be driving that mining revival for his own benefit, and a domestic source for the metals and minerals he needs for Tesla, SpaceX, and the hundreds of other companies he owns… just watch and see. This is only the beginning of the corporate takeover of America.
They're not even pretending to care anymore.
They know that nobody is brave enough to come after them. They're above justice.
@@GenerationX1984 they know they've bought anyone that can come after them.
Nor should they. The residents are standing in the way of progress.
You say this while living a life of copper 😂
@@anotherguy9402Yeah, every supply chain is built on exploitation. My criticizing that doesn’t make me a hypocrite because I have to exist.
“Boom and bust” is a nice way of saying “a company extracted all the value it could from us and our land then left us to rot”
My whole family thrived in Marion, IN during the car factory days. Then GM and all the rest left. Now look at that town, I would step foot in it if my family weren’t there.
Damn that’s so true
Exploitation makes the world go around. How would we possible get by if we didn't have these corporations to "create jobs" for us. Good thing the shareholders get rich.
Did you know that in the USA many shareholders don't even own a second vacation home? Wont somebody please consider the shareholders?!!?
In 1960/70’s High copper prices meant Miners had nice trucks, trailers, and boat. Low copper prices meant the Miner’s nice trucks etc. sat along the road with for sale signs.
Privatise the profits, socialise the risks
It's the same for California communities that sprung up around old oil wells and refineries. You'd think they would be super wealthy, but that wealth doesn't go to the communities, the wealth goes to the investors instead. And all the "externalities", the pollution, disease, and crime after the extraction site is sold off? That stays with the communities because the investors consider it someone else's problem.
Maybe we should make it their problem? If they get rid of a mine or well without cleaning up the site first, the toxic substances should be shipped to their families.
It will probably never fly, but a guy can dream.
Truth. Notably, the rest of the world, especially South America, Africa and Southeast Asia have been dealing with these monstrous companies coming and taking the resources at the cost of buying off a few politicians, and leaving the locals to deal with environmental destruction, poverty, and illness.
Rio Tinto is a familiar name. Sounds like the competition joined them, making them even more bulletproof.
We need to fight this here and now, or they'll do more and worse.
BTW Howdy fellow Beau Peep! ✌️😎
Here in Alberta, oil is still everything. We have laws on the books about cleanup. We have a government body responsible for overseeing it (and responsible for communication with the government, and made up of the companies themselves, so, yeah). What it doesn't have is anything like the kind of money that it's going to take to actually clean things up. So, even if a government does put in funding for cleanup, or re-utilization of the heavy metals and such, there are going to be companies insisting that they belong in the process gumming things up and removing necessary cleanup funds from the conversation, unless your cleanup fund can be kept entirely independent. Many of the companies that extract oil have been taken over by Chinese companies, and their land leases have stopped being paid by those companies, leaving tax money to municipalities unpaid. Our past lies in coal extraction, and increasingly it lies in oil extraction.
You do realize the irony of Jed Clampett and movin to Beverly?
Cuz he shot him some food
and up from the ground came bubblin crude.
Sounds just like trickle down economics: it doesn’t trickle down.
You wont believe what copper miners spend their money on. Mechanics and welders making 6 figures and still can't figure it out.
Thank you for making this video, you have turned it from a town fight to a much larger one
Excellent video. Keep calling out corruption.
Unfortunately, this is a story that is happening everywhere in the world.
Almost like capitalist oligarchs are global.
u.s. military bases in 164 nations
free west papua
Appalachia is one...
@@atomictraveller Where do you think you should get copper and lithium for your phone and car battery then? Chile?
This Changes Everything. Great book.
"they gave us 50 bucks and a backpack so yeah sure destroy this town"
Holy hell that's....frightening.
Typical Boomer mentality.
That's why we need to support our public school in every community. We need a populace that can understand basic math and science well enough to know a hornswoggle when they see it.
So sad that they're buying these people off with trinkets, $50 gift certificates, backpacks.....🤦
So a $50 gift card while the corporate will make massive annual profits?
Greedy as always
That's how the propaganda works. It's not for the people who know it's propaganda. There are more of them than us.
Clearly you haven't been to Superior.
Corporations never cease to find ways to disappoint and disgust me.
Hope you are enjoying your corporate phone.
@@LoveableLincoln32you got 'em!!! You're a genius!
@@LoveableLincoln32course it you never thought maybe we can make the things we need without allowing corporations to destroy our lives?
@@LoveableLincoln32 What a cheap remark to make, try harder next time. Corporations are everywhere, yes. A lot of what we use day to day is from them, yes. But your statement doesn't detract from the truth that corporations (when unchecked) do a lot of damage to local communities through beating out smaller business competition, buying up historic land and desecrating it, ruining the environment through pollution and preventable accidents, performing planned obsolescence, monopolizing via mergers, buying politicians who don't have our best interests at heart, and raising prices of goods and services while not even paying their workers a living wage. Your statement is irrelevant to the issue at hand.
@@LoveableLincoln32 If slaves/peasants hated slavery/feudalism, then why did they use/consume food, products, and tools produced by slavery/feudalism?
The chimney of the copper smelter in Hayden is the tallest free standing structure in Arizona. It's like something out of a sci fi movie.
I've worked on that smoke stack. You can see for hundreds of miles.
The old power house on the property is a trip. I won’t go in there at night. Old stuff neat to see.
You won't find the most sadistic and evil people in a prison. You'll find them in a corporate board room.
Literally a devils bargain dealing with these companies.
You mean how McCain made millions? That's where the bargain is made. Rich politicians and rich lobbying splitting the world for profit, harvesting death everywhere.
Except that in a devil's bargain, you suffer the consequences. In these cases, it's the descendants and the future taxpayers who have to clean the place up, if it's done.
"Freedom only exists so long as it is profitable and the second it isn't the elites will pull back the curtain and reveal the brick wall at the back of the theater."
Frank Zappa
Awesome quote! Zappa's work and rambling interviews will continue to age like fine wine the further we go into this timeline...
"Kick over the wall 'cause government's to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D'you know that you can use it?"
--Joe Strummer
There is not money without a demand. Demands are needs of people. Someone put up the money to extract the valuable metal that people across the world need. It’s a trade off.
@@GilaHMonster Coroporate et imperium necessitates non apponunt cum necessitatibus personalibus.
I have seen this in West Virginia with coal it disgusting to see it happen. Nothing good will come of it
Nothing good will come of your mom
Jobs and economy come of it...
But then those jobs eventually disappear and the economy tanks. And all thats left that was created by the “economy” is even more wealth for the ultra-rich and corporate shareholders, but poverty and despair for the local workers, what was really recreated there? Economic opportunity for the working class, or a slow, calculated exploitation of them?
I worked at a copper mine in AZ. The mine was, and still is, owned by a foreign company. The copper is extracted, concentrated, put on a train to Mexico, and ultimately transported by ship directly to China.
If it wasn't for taxes and local wages, no money would remain in the USA.
And before the EPA and Sierra Club caused almost all US smelters to close, those concentrates were smelted, refined and used to manufacture goods here in the USA.
WHAT’s. THE GOVERNOR DOING IN THERE ?
@@hardrockminer-50 🎯
@@hardrockminer-50 good I'm glad they closed, clean air to breathe & clean water to drink are worth it
No nukes
Thank you for bringing this topic to the forefront. So many people across the globe have & are going through similar issues. It’s overwhelming & gives me such a hopeless feeling for future generations. 😢
Here’s another place that isn’t far from where I live that is a battle zone for lithium.
I live in Arizona near the California border. Imperial Valley, CA has recently been labeled Lithium Valley after the 2023 study was conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
They partnered with the US Dept of Energy & discovered an estimated 17 million+ metric tons of lithium.
The area is near the polluted & toxic Salton Sea. There are 3 companies competing for the extraction rights. They & their investors are salivating at the financial potential. A lot of promises are being made to the locals. The charlatans are out in full force like dogs in heat.
There is only so much water in the California desert. The lithium extraction process will require tons of water. The Imperial Valley already has an industry that drains a ton of water, agriculture.
Which do we choose food or lithium? There is not enough water locally for both. Is San Diego or LA counties water supply going to be impacted? Some experts are saying yes.
10:13 in response to that man: it is great that your town is getting the support it needs again, no doubt it seems like a lifeline. But if Resolution Copper can afford to build health centres, hold festivals, fund scholarships, support local schools, and give out $50 gift cards at will, you have to ask yourself: how much then, are they profiting? Because we can be assured they wouldn't be giving this town anything like this unless it only cost a tiny fraction of the wealth they're extracting.
What I'd love to see is a community owned mining cooperative, that can balance protections for sacred tribal areas, environmental protections and water usage, while also providing jobs and wealth to the community, instead of multinational mining conglomerates.
It's thinking like this that will save mining in America, and towns like this.
How come the US Federal government and local State government bodies get away with allowing people to live in poverty then gain support for exploitative companies move in because people are desperate for the money THEY ARE OWED by our government. WHERE are our tax dollars going? WHY DO WE GET TO TAKE TAKE TAKE
@@lukefarmer4239nothing will “save mining in America”
Why not use the Pennies that nobody wants? Recycle metals! Leave this town alone and copper in the ground!!!
@@lisa5249 Good point, though they are being made of mostly zinc these days. But, I'm guessing there's some mining issues there that I'm just not familiar with.....
Ravage the land and give the people a dime to do it while keeping the rest of the dollar. If corporations shared the wealth it be one thing but, the wealth is never shared.
spending your whole life in a dream in the ma5onic state is however, entirely shared.
too bad you'll forget about this in a few moments.
The mines wealth creation is always shared with the workers. Most workers are not usually wise enough to live way below their means and save for the rainy day when the mines close.
It’s sickening to watch mining companies flatten mountains and ruin an entire ecosystem.
And to zero benefit to the people
And capitalism really hates recycling. Mining is subsidized (most often by Land Grants well below the actual value) by Taxpayers. Every corporation in the supply chain wants their steady income.
Building products to last a long time and recycling are two enemies of profit growth (and corporate executive compensation).
@@middleagebrotips3454except all the products that get made out of it
It's truly tragic what happened to West Virginia's mountains
Did you write that on a phone?
No wonder why these Politicians are worth 50 to 100 millions of dollars...
Trillions
...in Direct Contributions.
More specifically the House of Reps.. Insider trading doesn't exist for the House of Reps. A U.S. Senator got in trouble for insider trading and used that as a defense and then it was explained to him that Congress and the House of Reps are not the same thing.
This needs to stop. I’m so sick of corrupt corporate America.
They are going to destroy that poor town.
A dead town with no economic prospects
Economic prospects for the medical industry - treating various cancers, no doubt.
@@LoveableLincoln32 sweet, if that's the case let's just give the land back to the apache
like you care about 1.8 million murders in west papua your government 64 years. you get this now.
@@LoveableLincoln32 when "economic prospects" become your only concern, you've subscribed to a world you probably don't want to live in...
Big international companies have been doing this to indigenous peoples' land for decades in the Philippines. But they would actually use imposter indigenous organizations to sign the land over. Lands rich in metal like gold etc.
Wow. I'm going to have to look into this. I do know that our government (US) has made agreements with individuals that didn't represent the tribes, but happened to be indigenous. Greed is a terrible thing.
People at the Salton Sea are facing this dilemma too. They just discovered massive lithium deposits in/around the man-made "Sea"...
Isn't the Salton sea just a toxic area with a ever shrinking body of water? Why not mine it while cleaning up the area.
I haven't heard what technique they're going to use, but if it's going to further damage the environment, then it should be a no go. If they can remove toxins and restore the lake, then that would be a plus. However, I think that would be a first in resource extraction.
@erinmac4750 the Salton sea was a pure accident, it will dry out unless wasteful efforts are made to pump water into it
except 60 years 1.8 million dead genocide west papua for the world's largest gold mine u.s. operated
see how much you know
see hwo much you do/care
ever
@@erinmac4750 The Salton Sea won't be mined like a traditional mine. It'll use an evaporation process, which is water intensive and not particularly efficient.
Would love to see you investigate the water issue in Idaho. Eastern Idaho, 500K farm acres were put under water curtailment in May 2024. Thank you.
But that's only affecting white people, not native Americans.
Cancer in exchange for free backpacks and $50 worth of food.
That’s crazy how that was pushed through, so dirty
Patagonia, Arizona is facing the same problem. South32, a mining company out of Australia is set to use 1.6 Billion gallons of water in a drought stricken state. Promises of jobs and the same type of rhetoric is swaying the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, The United States Forest Service, local county & city politicians. Profits before people.
What sickness to ruin such a beautiful place. A scourge upon the earth.
The people of AZ need to get some honest people in office before this does too much damage. I know about the shady deal allowing Saudi Arabia to farm alfalfa there, but I wasn't aware of the Copper Corridor, and the mines there.
If BHP has already left a mess, they should have to clean-up and compensate before doing other business in the state. Rio Tinto shouldn't be allowed anywhere in this country. They've left disasters all over the world.
Aren't they still cutting off water to smaller towns in Maricopa County?
$60 billion dollars worth of copper is a gift to the world, and and these schmoes have no right to stand in the way of it.
@@hg2. "$60 billion dollars worth of copper is a gift to the world, and and these schmoes have no right to stand in the way of it."
Wow, weird seeing this copy and pasted PR statement here. Do you have no life?
Probably not considering literally no one in life loves or likes you.
THANKs More PerFect Union
For COVERing This Story
.
I'm originally from the Salt Lake Valley. I've seen the grand canyon, but it didn't have nearly the guttural impact on me that seeing Kennecott Copper Mine did. Human eyes were not meant to see mountains turned inside-out.
I fear for the people of Superior.
Why not do make a giant properly lined cistern like structure for the valleys water supply
That mine can be seen from space....that was years ago. I'm guessing it's only grown larger, and that there's competition around the globe for that "honor."
I was at U of U when the Lake was much higher. I've been hoping that recent years have brought more environmental awareness to a state which has some incredible natural wonders.
@erinmac4750 the great salt lake was originally lake Bonneville in the distant past it has been shrinking for thousands of years I would bet. Dumping water into it will only result in massive evaporation leading to a massive constant waste of water
hi salt lake, i bet salt lake is a long way from the genocide in west papua for u,s. gold mining for the last 60 years 1.8 million huh how about that salt lake. ever notice your head going beep beep beep salt lake.
I grew up in Utah, and in the 80s we used to have school field trips there maybe once a year. I moved to another state when I was 20 and checked the mine out as am adult. I couldn't believe how much it had changed since I was a kid. It really did remind me of another Grand Canyon. It's wild.
You guys are awesome. I feel clear and educated after watching Perfect Union videos.
"we are dust underneath the carpet to the mining corporations." damn
Not just them.
ALL of us are. The excesses of the executive class know no limitations.
@@amzarnacht6710 And it's not just to mining corporations. It's ALL of them.
@@Molue_ FACT
She is one smart young gal. A force to be reckoned with. 👍
@@amzarnacht6710 they have access to a printing press where they can print all the debasement they need to fund any lie. or corruption. "People get the government they deserve."
The way that bill passed is straight up criminal. It's insane. Two senators on the payrol of the mining company hide it in a bill about space funding? No shoplifter should be in jail while these two criminals are walking free. And neither should they be in jail after the senators are locked up, but that's a different story
McCain passed from cancer a few years ago. Flake is out of office.
If it helps any, John McCain isn't walking free anymore, and won't again until the zombie apocalypse.
@@brianthered I mean I am not surprised but in some instances it all becomes so clear...I should add, I am not from the US, but I mean that stuff is the same all over the world
Senator McCain one of the shadiest
You do understand this is tame
You said Superior and every Midwesterner was like "oh you mean the next town over.." And then you blew their minds by saying Arizona.
All my support from Chile!!!
Love that stretch on the I-17 have many child hood memories of passing thru there
US -60*
Or maybe you meant 177?
There used to be a beautiful campground at Oak Flats. That closed several years ago as part of the land swap deal.
It makes one wonder if reducing tourist traffic in the area is part of a plan to keep the fight quiet.
Campground is still open
@@nehemiahstark369 dang! Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised although we camped there for what was supposed to be the last weekend of it being open. That was 4 or 5 years ago. Hopefully it stays open for good! Of course, having the community be taken care of is the most important thing and for that we're even more hopeful.
Good to know there's a campground there for people to stay when they come to support action.
I hope this gets back in the news. Most of us could go without ever hearing a certain orange menace ever mentioned again.
@@erinmac4750 it's a small campground....
Don't forget the Golden Rule: Those of that whom owned the gold, makes the rules....
Capitalism in the US Regime is deadly to the working classes across the country ~
Spoken like a true )ew!
I live in a mining town. When one of our biggest mines closed it affected our school district which consists of 3 small towns and numerous surrounding locations. We went from graduating 125 kids a year to about 50. Grocery stores closed, along with gas stations, theaters, restaurants, bars,liquor stores, and many other small businesses. With the good working people gone, low income welfare types came. People not wanting to work saw opportunity for low cost housing and low job prospects so they could continue collecting handouts. We are now in the second generation of these people. Crime has risen, homes are in disrepair, blight is everywhere and rarely enforced, businesses barely survive, and to top it all off, meth came here with these people too. We are in a remote area and wouldn't exist in the first place had there not been mining. Because we are so far away from things new businesses don't see it cost effective to set up here. Now i could blame the mines for not providing for the town, but it isn't their fault that it wasn't cost effective to stay open. Times were much better when they were here, and we still use school buildings that were built by them. Nobody trusts that they will be open forever, and they never said they would be here in Minnesota. As far as pollution goes, we have clean air and the best water in the state. Our city water comes from an abandoned mine pit. The twin cities 4 hours south on the other hand is a cesspool. They all come up here on weekends to catch fish they can eat and escape the true enemy of the land- overpopulation. When it comes to copper, everyone in this video was using it. We should mine it here, or stop using it. Regulate everything heavily though- most copper comes from third world countries with no regulation, child labor etc. Do it right and do it here. Don't be against something unless you're willing to live without it.
You just described Coalgate, Oklahoma- my town.. its disgusting how these “merchants of the world” seek and destroy the earth and whole communities as soon as they are done using and abusing all the resources. Soon there will not be a corner left for their seek and destroy mission, then what? I guess thats the real question .. will the people ever grow the courage and backbone to stop selling out and say no to these corporations? That is the only solution
The mine closing and showing how tenuous your economic situation is the justification you give for wanting this town to go forward with that catastrophic mine? Extraction is finite, your present fate will be theirs in a generation. If you suffer, why wish for others to join you in your pain?
“Don’t be against something unless you’re willing to live without it”. Well stated and obviously misunderstood. Many people brainwashed into the green economy seem to be quite hypocritical when it comes to the reality of that transition. Minnesota is beautiful,with a long and proud mining history.
"times were much better when they were here" is a very, very short-sighted take. A few decades of capitalist prosperity is not worth the damage to the environment or what's taken from the subsequent peoples who might come along.
Corporations, ie mining companies, do not care about you. They will destroy the landscape while brainwashing you into thinking it's good.
@mrbake6933 is also doing the same thing. Short-term prosperity at the detriment to the long term. Americans are told constantly that the world is ours to exploit, rape, steal and destroy, then we label this as progress/prosperity. In reality that's greed convincing us to sell ourselves and our children out for temporary riches.
The habitability of our planet is quickly dropping. We're putting massive amounts of energy into a feedback loop(climate change) and the loop is taking off. We're at a point where we need to drastically reevaluate the way we define success and progress. The way we define it now will destroy us. Capitalism convinces us of the opposite.
@@mrbake6933 It's not that the green economy has brainwashed us. It's that we live next to superfund sites or places that cannot be uncontaminated. So I went and looked it up since you brought up the Twin Cities. There are over 20 cases of contaminated groundwater in and around Minneapolis. One of them in the early 20th someone just burred tons of arsenic which dissolved seeped into the groundwater. Most of the areas around the Twin Cities doesn't allow wells because of contamination. All of this done by companies. There's a reason people don't trust companies of this stuff. Were I live we Carrier factory which polluted the groundwater which seeped into an underground aquafer and caused an area the size of Manhattan to be unable to use wells. Factory is still there. Since I live in a deep red state every lawsuit to sue them into oblivion has been blocked by the state legislator who throws up some new roadblock law. Factory is still polluting above the safety standards. And every year they keep trying to have the thresholds removed so they can stop paying the piddling fine. That is most of the US's interaction with this type of stuff. You are not the standard. It's not that we are against industry. It's that industry has repeatedly proved itself untrustworthy. Some states have started having mining operations in particular pay a percentage of profits every year into a fund for cleanup after a mine is closed. They know the mining company will just declare bankruptcy and leave a mess. So get ahead of it.
I grew up in Morenci Arizona. The copper mine was the best thing that ever happened to us. The median income in our town was huge. This was despite a lack of education. The mine provided opportunities that are simply unavailable anywhere else. I love the mining industry.
Do you still live there? How is the health of the residents who have had to live with all the toxic waste left behind?
For anyone on the fence about this mine, look into the copper mine in Butte Montana and the damage it caused to the Clark Fork river.
Could they have prevented damaging the river while they mined the copper?
@@websurfer5772 I'm not a miner so I honestly don't know for sure but I don't think so. The Berkeley pit is a mile deep hole that is filling up with water so toxic that it kills any bird that lands on it. The Call Fork river was the world's biggest Superfund site and has finally started to recover from the mining pollution
Ely & Strafford Mines in Vermont - exact same thing. Strafford mine polluted the Connecticut river for 40 miles South of the mine. Took nearly 20 years to get Super Fund status.
Look in to the V.A.G mine in Lowell. That has contaminated a 100 mile diameter circle of the water table. You can't fix that. Ever.
I'm an AZ native and frequent the superior area often. Because the higher elevations, the mountains are almost like a sky island with different animals and plants found there than in our deserts. Mountain Lions are still in those mountains.
The other problem with their block mining plan is that the rains here keep things dry, and then flood rapidly on an almost annual basis.
They will lose equipment and soil to these floods and they will leech sediment into the water when the floods come.
Mining here is not a problem, block mining here is a stupid idea.
We live in the United CORPORATIONS of America. CORPORATIONS will always prevail. The only way to save this land from being mined is to find a way that makes this land unprofitable to be mined.
Well, the French invented a machine in 1789 that solve this issue in a snap, or should I say a CHOP!😊
@@theboyisnotright6312
Killing some people doesn't stop the rest of them from also being people.
No its satanic states of america, babylon its under judgement it will be destroyed sins reached to my beautiful Heavenly Father Almighty God The Most Highs Throne room
That presents quite a challenge with a company as rich as Rio Tinto. Though if they're using robotics and tech, maybe some Anonymously skilled folks would be up to trying.... One can hope.
john quincy adams could say that word.
I am so happy to have stumbled upon your channel. Many of vlogs are issues near and dear to my heart. Thank you for your investigative reporting, I look forward to watching all your vlogs! I will be sharing to my family and friends. Bless you and your family and coworkers for reporting these important issues, stay safe in these weird times.
Excellent report, well done youngman. I'm looking forward to seeing future reports. As a resident of Arizona, thank you.
The only way to solve greed is to set a trap and bait it with money.
Or, we can just go with an ecomomic system that doesn't reward greed (capitalism).
@@DrizzyB (As he packs his bags, readying to go to North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela ....)
Except that you will only bait it with OTHER people's money.
("But, but, but I'm not the greedy one!! It's only people who have more money than ME who are the greedy ones!")
@@MrJm323that is just wrong. Propaganda bs.
@@chillnophone2024 Yes, socialists are indeed full of b.s.!
A few billionaires shouldn’t own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange. Workers make the world run, workers should run the world.🏴🌎
They don't.
Nationalized assets usually fall apart and are very poorly managed
@@seriouslyshortofnormal925
They should. They generate the profits. The profits should go to the workers.
@@jonathanjones3126
That sounds like a separate issue, not an economic issue.
Workers generate the profits.
@@alohatigers1199
No, workers don't generate profits. Workers are just a cog in someone else's machine. Profits should go to the owners/shareholders.
Workers get paid for being their part of the machine, and if they want a piece of the profits they can buy stock.
The same kind of damage went on, and still goes on, in Nevada. Cyanide settling ponds,
heap leach mining, polluted streams, huge mine tailings, ruined land, drinking water laced
with chemicals, toxic dust.
An excellent report. Please check out the very similar "Copper World" project, just south of Tucson, at the northern end of the Santa Rita range and also the Hermosa Project in Patagonia, Arizona. Thank you.
This is outstanding reporting!!!
Agree, protect Oak Flat😢
Protect it from what economic failure?
@@LoveableLincoln32 Sacred land getting destroyed, did you not watch the video at all?
@@LoveableLincoln32 protect it from destruction. Oak Flat isn’t the town. It sits above the town next to the cliffs on the edge of the town. It is a unique ecosystem around here. A place we all love and enjoy and was given to a foreign mining company by a sneaky, greedy Senator. Besides, nobody talks about how close the digging is to the cliffs. They are about 1000 feet above the town and the mine up there is going over a mile down. No one is addressIng the stability of Apache Leap, the cliffs. I would like to protect my home, my town and my surroundings from destruction. Think before you speak.
Mining companies or companies in general have NEVER been a friend to the people. Only politicians and the corporations benefit.
8:43 Exactly. Most politicians go into politics to do good but end up doing well. 💸
Go with good intentions but stay due to corruption
Long ago going thru Globe Miami at night sometimes a slag pour would occur. Very cool to see.
Wind power is 8 tons of copper per megawatt.
The same people who villify mining are demanding wind turbines and batteries.
Anyone who demands "renewables" is demanding a staggering amount of mining. While also protesting about it.
They want mining, just not in the country thats going to paying for all these "renewables" Its not about actually caring about climate change, its about virtue signalling and huge companies making profits in 3rd world countries that have no environmental regulations. Just to make Karen feel like she has some kind of importance in her shitty life.
It's not that they don't want mining, it's they don't want it here. They are just fine with children mining it in Africa where we don't see it.
Just how did you calculate that number?
@@timkaldahl I didn't. It comes from some industry analyst. It includes all the transmission lines I believed.
Also likely an under estimate and it's only copper. The neodymium is also a huge issue.
@@RichardChappell1 The environmentalists don't want that either. Progress is only for white people if you ask them.
This story hits very close to home, my grandfather, father and many friends worked at Mother Magma. If you went to San Manuel High School, you are a Miner for life.
These resource extraction corporations must be forced to do land reclamation, to clean up their toxic leftovers before they leave.
It will never happen without extreme coercion. It's not considered their job because the shareholders wouldn't have it.
But then billionaires won't get their 18th mansion!!! Won't somebody think of the rich people???
@@kellywalker1664
More environmental activist "shareholders" with voting rights are needed to steer these corporations in the direction of environmental sustainability.
The earth needs more advocates in shareholder meetings.
Business as usual CEOs gotta go.
What's funny is that they wouldn't be profitable if forced to actually clean up after themselves (or so they claim), so the only reason they're able to make money is at the expense of everyone else and the environment
But YOU want your copper-based products at a reasonable price.
If you know a technology to actually clean up those large mounds of tailings, you're gonna share that with us, right?
Years ago, a North Carolina farmer discovered a mineral lode containing emeralds and hiddenite on his property. He tried to keep it a secret, but soon rumors of the hidden treasure sparked and spread like wildfire. When the government caught wind of it, they wanted to steal his farm.
Isn't it amazing how the towns richest in natural resources are also some of the poorest towns of all?
10:00 - They'll poison the children of the town, but here's $50. Dude's a real simpleton.
The people need to take what's theirs.
Why isn’t the DOJ investigating this?!
The DOJ flies over a lot.
They're to busy going after President Trump.
If Trump had anything to do with it they would have already thrown everyone in prison.
Because the DOJ is the root of corruption in our poor country. We can blame the FED since 1913 or even Presidents Wilson Nixon and Bush, or blame the Clinton’s or Obamas or even Paul Ryan, Alan Greenspan, Bernake and Nancy Pelosibut this is way deeper. The only thing that makes any sense at all is Aliens 👽
@@EricEasterling-o6r Good
Thank you for sharing this story. Protect the sacred. #VeteransforOakflat
said the same thing yesterday about west papuans. 1.8 million genocide for u.s. gold mining. they are also more evolved humans than americans becuase i can communicate with them telepathically around the fing world. stress from decades of targeting. i can take you all, or you can all get with me on this. either way, i own the fing universe.
Without mining and the petroleum industry, you people would have nothing. That's not even an exaggeration. Literally nothing. Be grateful for what you have.
You cannot shock someone who already expects the most vile from humans!
Why if we are the richest country in the world why do we let foreign companies come in and do this to our land . Of course with congresses help and filling their pockets with cash.
ma5ons.
try to remember that except the MK says you won't.
It’s sick how short sighted people are and how easily they are fooled with a $50 food voucher.
So they're just not gonna stop until the entire world is literally on fire??.
not a bad idea
They got their mega bunkers, why should they worry about the poor shytes who did the actual work funneling the money up to them?
That seems to be the ultimate goal and then it's off to Mars.
We’re good but we can still solve problems subtractively
That’s what wake up means, not post
Don't use copper, or anything made with copper!
(Bahahahahahanan😂😂😂😂😂)
That mayor should be voted out of office.
Save Oak Flat. Protect the environment. Protect the people.
"Protect the environment. Protect the people."
Which is it?
Do you want all the technology (and even just the basic essentials), which require resource extraction ...or not?
Do you want to live or do you want to sacrifice human life for "the environment".
(The proverbial clean 'bathwater' is only of value if it serves the life of the 'baby'. Not the other way around.)
@@MrJm323 NO. fck your "technology" fck your cell phone, fck your electric cars, fck your foreign corporations with no allegiance to the US or its people.
@@MrJm323 False framing.. the environment supports the people, we have a responsibility to support it in return.. without a healthy flourishing environment we can't survive one day.. it's not one or the other. We can create prosperity without destroying the environment, we can do it faster if we divest from destructive industries not held accountable for the damage they cause when they leave town.. go take a look at all the abandoned mines around Arizona and see what I mean.. Together we can put the power in the hands of people instead of living under corrupt corporate tyranny.
@@bmay282 Like I said, the "environment" (the baby's bathwater) is of value only because the life-giving, life-enhancing resources are of value to the end-users (my proverbial "baby", your "people").
Ends and means. Human life is the end goal, the exploitation of nature is the means.
Your healthy, flourishing environment contributes to your survival ...only if some of it can wind up on your plate, well-cooked (or incorporated into your house wiring or your car and car battery, etc.).
If people want the industrial products which enhance their lives, then they have to get to the resources nature holds. These particular towns only exist because of the profitability of the mining (which was done, of course, by corporations). If someone lives in those towns, it is only because of the corporate-industrial activity there.
If a mine has become abandoned, this is because either the resource there was exhausted or changes in government policy made the activity unprofitable. ...If there are ugly tailings and open pits left over, that's just simply the price paid to get the needed resources. Is there someone forced to live in some small mining town that has been abandoned by the mining corporation? Just leave if it's unpleasant to live there.
I worked in mining. Mining provides wealth and employment. Minerals are about as important as food. Where the heck do these guys think wealth comes from?
Arizona is still singing John McCains praises. Truth coming out
Nobody has any idea what that means, genius.
@@User0000000000000004 yeah we do.
McCain was dirty.
@@User0000000000000004 Get educated before you comment. Nobody = you. You haven’t taken the time to research and take your local feed bag news as truth. I would bet you think Kamala Harris is the answer to all your problems! News flash….you have been lied to all your life and you are ok with it!
@@User0000000000000004 you should research yourself genius! You want to take about the S&L Keating Scam of the 80,s or the insider information land grab in the 90’s? Maybe you like him from his daughter,Megan McCain singing his praises along with the View..Behar, Whoopi and the rest.
Solid reporting. Thank you. My step father passed away from bone cancer. He worked at a Phelps Dodge mine in New Mexico for 25 yrs mining ore and breathing dust. What did they do for him…
I’m so sorry to hear all this, and I’m on their side. I hope they hold up against all the evil people that are coming their way in numbers….
This is Journalism, not sitting behind a desk reading other people's work.
Truth! ✊
SO refreshing. This is what a free and fair press looks like. This type of transparency is vital to upholding democracy.
Mines were shut down in AZ because the cost to get the metal out of the ground exceeded the value of the metal.
This is what happens when the market price isn't driven by the companies mining it, but instead by the people trading paper in commodities and intentionally driving the price down.
Bull, They were shut down because the workers voted UNION. All copper mines produce enough gold , silver and other elements to pay COSTS for years into the future IN JUST ONE YEAR. P-D, mined enough gold in one day to pay for a years operation at one of their mines . Who do you work for?
@@Zgreasewood That's not what history says.
Also, going Union absolutely increases the cost to do business.
And it's none of your business who I work for.
@@JohnD-JohnD unions don't raise costs they share profits, when Uniroyal was bought out by the unions they proved this 100%
@@Zgreasewood Unions absolutely raise costs. Lol, when you say they "share profits", that would be the same as costing more because they take a higher percentage of the profit.
@@Zgreasewoodhighest cost for union is labor. Often why people avoid it. Leaves little room for any variables as workers aren’t willing to share in the risk only the reward.
I worked at two different strip mines over 37 years.. Overburden, blasting, fuel usage, dust and of course ground pollution is a concern for mine operators. The bigger concern though is their bottom line. To that end, they will do and say anything to make that money. And then you get the Foreign owners with no loyalty to the American people, property or health, it brings up a whole new set of problems.
I've seen so many towns come and go over the production of a single resource. It's like people have completely forgotten how to diversify their assets and options. You can't blame the mine or the resources for the closure or loss of economy in Superior. There are PLENTY of resources available to mine there, copper is just one of many.
Politics aside, the land near Superior where this copper lies is amazingly beautiful. Possibly national park beautiful. It would be a shame to have this lands beauty permanently destroyed.
Backpacks, and gift cards is all it takes for people to sign away their future health. It’s the American way.
As a retired environmental professional who specialized in heavy metals and wastewater treatment, I know what these mines do. If a mine goes in, FORGET about any aquifers, subsurface perched water tables, and surface waters, they're done. And I promise you they are NOT treating the leachate off of these mines. Hell they don't even maintain their ponds and retention walls, they surely aren't putting out the expense of treating leach water, which is expensive.
That’s a beautiful car Mr TJ Mullet was driven around Superior in. I doubt he realized the steel, aluminum and copper that he’s sitting on was all mined. The fuel and oil that car burned to run was all pumped out of the ground. The plastic that makes up the shell of his camera is made from oil. The rare earth elements that make up the computer chips inside that camera were mined. The lithium in the batteries that power said camera were mined. The glass that makes up the camera lens was mined. Everyone can sit here and say mining is bad, but nobody is using a horse as their main means of travel, going down to the river everyday to fetch water, growing their own vegetables for food and then going to sleep at night in their buck skin Teepees.
I don’t necessarily agree with putting a huge block cave mine under a culturally sensitive area, but at the same time nobody in this video is living off the land and hunting and gathering for their primary sources of food.
You want to stop mining? Stop buying products that require mining. Unfortunately this is the way we choose to live. Nobody is stopping us from giving up the current comforts of life.
If it can’t be grown it has to be mined.
Are you dense?
I love seeing these idiots taking 50 dollar certificates in exchange for their entire lives. I feel bad for the others impacted by those idiots. This is sad.
To love and feel bad at the same time sounds so confusing
You mean the idiots at the food bank who likely are trying to not let their kids go hungry, those idiots?
There is an irony describing the town as boom and bust because the mine closed while protesting the opening of a larger mine in the town. My grandfather mined southern Arizona in a number of now Ghost Towns.
This channel is fantastic in it’s methods and honestly one of the greatest channels on YT to be able to push propaganda in the mainstream
This is where capitalism always leads. It's all part of the deal
This issue isn't unique to capitalism. The situation in China is much worse.
@@seriouslyshortofnormal925Nah man, this is a corporation doing what corporations do, seek profit and ignore any cost that’s not to their bottom line. This is a feature of capitalism, not a bug.
@@braydenroberts8190
So resources aren't collected under any other circumstances than capitalism? That's a pretty hot take...
I hate to break this to you but people are still people regardless of the economic structure.
Corporation SUCK!
I got fired from a crummy company job, because I was absent from work for military training. No support from the butt hole feds either, corruption runs deep in fascist usa..
@@seriouslyshortofnormal925
Does it make it ok? Does it have to be that way?
The backside of the "green" transition... it has never been about the environment, only about profits
What is the green transition. Was that a mine policy? Who decided what that was about, and who made the profits?
Same with war
Ask your politicians - they vote this stuff in and get rich off it . The green new deal is the green new scam . Shame , shame , shame
Thank you for covering this. I used to recreate out at Oak Flat for decades.
Without us miners. The world would be without alot of everyday items.
Everything around you is because of us...
Your welcome.....
Thank you.
It’s badass putting out a video like this directly in opposition to these big companies.