7/17/2017
In 2013, a proposal was submitted to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Kingman Field Office by Freeport-McMoRan Bagdad Inc. (FMBI) to modify their Mine Plan of Operations (MPO) at the Bagdad Mine, located in Yavapai County west of the unincorporated community of Bagdad, Arizona. The proposed modification would authorize the extension of an existing, consolidated leach and waste rock stockpile on the south side of the mine. An Environmental Analysis was initiated in 2014 that also included analysis of two monitoring wells south of the stockpile to streamline approvals should they be required sometime in the future. At about the same time, and in the same area, Arizona Public Service Company (APS) submitted a proposed amendment to an existing right-of-way (ROW) for the construction of access roads to maintain a 115-kilovolt power line The MPO modification and ROW amendment propose new surface disturbance to approximately 600 acres of public land managed by the BLM and approximately 90 acres of private land.
BLM Kingman Field Office analyzed these proposals in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, as amended. In conducting this NEPA process, BLM was committed to an objective analysis of the environmental effects of the proposal and alternatives. In addition, BLM committed to a public involvement process that helped identify the issues addressed in the analysis, and that helped assure a complete and sound NEPA product to inform BLM's decision.
