Legislation declaring a three-year moratorium on the type of mining being planned near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge sailed through the Georgia House Tuesday. House lawmakers passed the bill 167-4, marking the first action the General Assembly has taken on plans to mine titanium along Trail Ridge in Charlton County. An earlier bill has been bottled up in a House committee for two years despite boasting more than 90 cosponsors in the 180-member House.
Under the bill that passed Tuesday, the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD) would not accept applications for dragline surface mining permits of heavy sands minerals for three years. That’s the mining technique and type of minerals contemplated by Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) in its plan to mine titanium oxide near the swamp. The EPD has issued draft mining permits to Twin Pines last month for a 700-plus-acre demonstration site, the first step toward opening an 8,000-acre strip mine along the southeastern border of the swamp.
