We would like to start this post off with something local property owner Lynn Haber had to say in the Willcox Range News…

“I have watched the water tables decline. I spent many days horseback riding up in the Cochise Stronghold. I have witnessed the Stronghold tanks going dry and not refilling. The Cochise Spring has gone dry for good. I have watched the huge oak trees wither and die over time because their roots can no longer reach the deepening water table.”

“The many farm fields in our valley have sucked much of the life from our land already. The Commonwealth Mine will destroy our town,” she told the Range News.

“I cannot fathom how they will use 3,000 gallons of water per minute. That’s an entire swimming pool every minute! Where are they getting that from?”

Haber went on to say, “Do they know we are in the desert? I believe they do not care about our town and this valley’s water supply. They will take their silver and gold, deplete our water supply, pollute our land with their toxic processing chemicals and then pack up and leave.”

Now onto our own voices of reason…

The “Community Meeting” notice shown above is posted at the Pearce-Sunsites community bulletin board next to our post office. According to this notice, Hall Stewart is going to provide us with an “Informative meeting”, which means he is going to “tell us” how it is, whether we like it or not, and he doesn’t want to address anyone’s questions (unless he has previewed them first).

Keep in mind that Hall Stewart is not here for our benefit. This multimillionaire mining tycoon is simply showing his face so he can later claim that our community supported his Canadian mining efforts when things go wrong. In the corporate world this is done to defend the “corporation”. In other words, when things go bad such as our water being depleted or our elementary school no longer being usable due to contamination with toxic chemicals, the CORPORATION can say that the community supported all of this as informed stakeholders, and therefore, the CORPORATION(S) involved are not responsible for anything that goes wrong since the community fully supported everything the CORPORATION(S) did.

As a COMMUNITY, we should be able to ask Hall Stewart direct questions and get HONEST answers, especially since he has been proven time and time again, that he has not been honest with us. Frankly, we do not care about Hall Stewart’s permitting processes or supposed corporate changes that he may be facing in the next several months since these are all smokescreens to keep us ill-informed and divide us as a community.

• Mr. Stewart says, “In projects I have previously managed, the exploration companies have been very involved with the communities nearby.” Is this why he is generously giving our community only 45 minutes of his valuable time?
• According to Hall Stewart, he is the founder of Commonwealth Silver, which is a lie. The founder of the company is Michael Farrant, President, and CEO of Commonwealth Silver.
• Mr. Stewart claims his business is a private Arizona corporation, which is a lie. Commonwealth Silver is a Canadian mining company, which you can verify for yourself at http://commonwealthsilver.ca/contact/contact_info/
• Mr. Stewart claims his company’s name is “Commonwealth Silver and Gold Corp”… Then he claims his company’s name is “Commonwealth Minerals”… Then he claims his company’s name is “Commonwealth Silver and Gold Mining, Inc.” Real companies that aren’t trying to deceive people consistently use their exact company name with pride. This is a common trick of Canadian mining companies to make it more difficult to remember who to sue when things go wrong.
  
• Mr. Stewart claims, “It is important that people in the community be aware of what we are doing and if there are concerns, we’d like to be aware so we can address them. You can find us at the project in Pearce.”, which is a lie. WE “DARE YOU” TO WALK ON TO THE PROPERTY OF THE MINE AND START ASKING QUESTIONS…
• Mr. Stewart claims that his proposed “100 meter deep open-pit cyanide-leach silver-gold operation” is completely safe and we have nothing to be concerned about, which is a lie.
• Mr. Stewart avoids addressing issues concerning the Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) which would prohibit groundwater pollution from leaving the site; a large challenge for Arizona mines thus far.
• Mr. Stewart has been avoiding questions from our community concerning groundwater depletion; what water quality impacts could be on the water table; and whether the mine would likely leave behind a pit lake.
• In Mr. Stewart’s own words, “I’m estimating that the water table in this region has dropped about 100 feet in the last 100 years. The water level within the mine has dropped substantially below the area worked in the past.” Yet he wants to convince us that his proposed use of 3,000 gallons per minute of water for eight and a half years “and hopefully more“, will not have an impact on our water supply?
• Mr. Stewart also says, “How we can address the issue of the school being so close to the mine is a concern.” Yet he is still dodging this issue and his company is not making any offers to build a new school for our children. So who’s going to pick up the tab for building a new school? The people of our community?
• Mr. Stewart also claims his company “would be providing 100 long-term good-paying jobs and that our preference is to hire local“. This is hard to believe, considering that the Keystone XL Pipeline would only create about 35 permanent jobs according to the State Department. Which you can read for yourself at http://www.newsweek.com/state-department-keystone-xl-pipeline-would-only-create-35-permanent-jobs-228898
• Mr. Stewart has also been avoiding concerns that his company’s technical data report shows that the nearest town to the mine is Willcox. It does not even show Pearce-Sunsites on their map.

All of the above, and more, can be confirmed by simply READING the following articles in the Willcox Range News.

• Gold and silver exploration at old Pearce mine (March 2, 2011)
• Commonwealth Mine: Will it move forward? (April 30, 2014)
• Commonwealth Silver and Gold Mining explains Pearce project (May 28, 2014)

The image above is from Hall Stewart’s LinkedIn page, which you can view at https://www.linkedin.com/pub/hall-stewart/6/1b8/854
Note that he is not the founder of Commonwealth Silver as he has repeatedly told our community. He was simply hired on as a consultant for his Canadian mining bosses to get into our community, which can be verified below by BusinessWeek.com.

You can view the page above on BusinessWeek.com by going to http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=182786185 AND CLICKING ON HALL STEWART’S NAME.

The man above is Canadian mining mogul Michael Farrant, who is the actual Founder, President, and CEO of Commonwealth Silver, which you can verify from the information on his LinkedIn page below.

You can view Michael Farrant’s LinkedIn page at http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/michael-farrant/14/34/32b

Above is an image of what cyanide mining pools look like. Do we honestly want these toxic time bombs next to our elementary school, yet alone in our community? Take a good look at these cyanide pools and then add monsoons, flooding, earth fissures, and washes into the equation.

It is very important to note that the Canadian mining company mentioned in the video below is “GoldCorp” who is a major shareholder of Delta Gold Corp, who are the REAL owners of Commonwealth Silver. They are one large Canadian mining group wanting to take our land and water rights for their own financial gain. After watching the video decide if you think this is good idea for Pearce, Arizona. If so, please leave an intelligent reply below explaining to the rest of us WHY THIS IS A GOOD IDEA…and not just because it will create a few short-term jobs, or that it will bring a few more people into Family Dollar or the RV park.

Don’t forget to email your questions for Mr. Stewart to: SunsitesAZChamber@gmail.com
or snail mail them to Pearce/Sunsites Chamber, PO Box 536, Pearce, AZ 85625.