by David Safier
Two key officers in the Rosemont Copper Company were officers of a company that went bankrupt in 1995. An article in the Star called it a "high profile" bankruptcy. Arizona law requires that a company include information about a bankruptcy involving people controlling over 20% of the shares, like these two officers. But Rosemont didn't include that information.
Why? Because the bankruptcy was in Canada, not the U.S., which means, according to the Rosemont folks, they don't have to say anything.
"We have nothing to hide. We would put that on there if we thought we needed to put it on there," [Rosemont Copper President and CEO Rod] Pace said in an interview, referring to a Corporation Commission disclosure form seeking information about past bankruptcies.
And for some reason I cannot understand, the Arizona Corporation Commission agreed, saying Rosemont is in compliance "with applicable statutory provisions."
Rosemont wants to dig a very large hole in Southern Arizona, which it promises to be around long enough to fix. It wants us to trust it to transport huge quantities of ore on our roadways. It wants us to believe our water will not be polluted by the mining. The underlying premise of any agreement to let Rosemont open a mine is, "You can trust us. We're as good as our word" (unlike so many mining operations in the past). Yet it uses a technicality to hide a past bankruptcy of two of its officers. And we should trust the Rosemont folks aren't hiding other important pieces of information that we'll learn about too late, after the damage has already been done?
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