The Lone Bidder: State Lands Easily Facilitate Private Transfer

Freeport-McMoran, the internationally involved and Arizona-based mining company, has once again acquired tracts of Arizona State Lands as the lone bidder. This time, acquiring nearly 26 square miles of wild Sonoran/Mojave Desert habitat outside the town of Bagdad, Arizona. Here they will store mountains of mine tailings from their nearby copper mine, likely smothering vast areas of wildlife habitat and unique species and rendering it nearly unusable for generations to come. It was valued at ...