Very good news today! The coal miners from Alabama have been bought out, ending mining on their specific property. First, the thanks. Then the rest of the story.

Many thanks to The Conservation Fund for buying out Twin Pines Minerals, LLC (TPM), and to the James M. Cox Foundation and the Holdfast Collective (Patagonia) for helping fund that acquisition. Thanks to everyone who helped, and to everyone who has opposed this bad mining proposal since at least 2019.

There is a direct path to adding this land into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), since the Okefenokee NWR Minor Acquisition Boundary Expansion was approved by USFWS 2025-01-03. Although given the current chaotic state of the federal government, keeping that land in private hands for now might be prudent.

Miners bought out near Okefenokee Swamp 2025-06-20, Twin Pines Minerals, by The Conservation Fund

We should all celebrate!

But this land acquisition is not the end of the mining story. There is much more we can do to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp, the blackwater rivers of south Georgia, and to pass a constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil.

Directly to the north of TPM’s parcels is much more land, owned by Toledo Manufacturing Co. At least one of its owners, Joe Hopkins, has spoken in favor of mining, including on his property.

Directly to the west and south much more land is owned by a company, Rayonier, that has leased mining rights to a different mining company in north Florida.

And titanium dioxide (TiO2) mining is not the only worry, nor is Trail Ridge. When Nutrien got its phosphate mining permit renewed by Hamilton County, Florida, in 2023, that company said it planned to wrap up operations on that site within ten years. But the same phosphate deposits continue north across the GA-FL line into Lowndes, Echols, Clinch, and Charlton Counties, Georgia.

As I pointed out to the Georgia House Natural Resources and Environment Committee back in March, numerous counties and cities have passed resolutions asking for the state to protect the entire Okefenokee Swamp, and many of them also asked for protection of all the blackwater rivers of south Georgia.

In addition to bills for these specific purposes, this would be a good time to start working on a state constitutional amendment for Right to Clean Water, Air, and Soil (RTCW) in Georgia.

Even more basically, south Georgia around the Swamp and beyond needs better businesses so there is no need to latch onto landfills, mines, and private prisons for jobs

Please read this AJC story, and then see below about the rest of the story. Drew Kann, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 20, 2025, Historic land deal halts mine planned next to Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp: The Conservation Fund is buying land near the Okefenokee where a mine was planned, heading off a project many feared could irreparably damage North America’s largest blackwater swamp.

After six years, a controversial bid to mine next door to Georgia’s famed Okefenokee Swamp is no more.

The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit specializing in acquiring at-risk lands, announced Friday it has purchased property near the Okefenokee where an Alabama-based company had planned to mine. The move puts an immediate halt to a project that scientists and environmentalists had feared could irreparably damage North America’s largest blackwater swamp.

It’s a stunning end to a yearslong fight over the mine that has been waged in courtrooms, the halls of the Georgia General Assembly and in rural counties surrounding the vast wilderness.

The rest of the AJC story is well worth your while.

Let’s look around the miners’ land, using the Charlton County Tax Assessors maps.

These are the parcels formerly owned by TPM, under the name Trail Ridge Land, LLC.

Map: Trail Ridge Land LLC — Charlton Co Tax Assessors 2025-06-20

Directly to the north, up to the ONWR entrance, and west to the edge of the ONWR, are parcels owned by Toledo Manufacturing Co.

Map: Toledo Mfn Co –Charlton Tax Assessors 2025-06-20

Joe Hopkins has indicated he might be amenable to being bought out.

The AJC story ends:

Today, large chunks of Trail Ridge remain privately held, including by property owners who have expressed interest in exploring mining on their land.

Funderburke of The Conservation Fund acknowledged there’s a “huge need” for more land to be protected and said his organization will continue discussions to benefit the swamp and protect property rights.

“We have been laser-focused on Twin Pines for the last year, but we are very open to finding other conservation outcomes to ensure that the Okefenokee is protected forever,” he said.

Time to get on with that.

For reference, here is a map of the Charlton County part of ONWR:

Map: ONWR — Charlton Co Tax Appraisers 2025-06-20

Between ONWR and the former TPM land, and much more south of that, are parcels owned by Rayonier Forest Resources, LP.

Map: Rayonier — Charlton Co. Tax Appraisers 2025-06-20

Much of that land southwards is obviously on Trail Ridge, which is where most of the TiO2 deposits are to be found. Some people may not be concerned, because those are farther from the Okenefenokee Swamp, although they are no farther from the St. Marys River. And let’s remember that all these parcels are above the Floridan Aquifer, from which we all drink, and which exchanges with surface water.

But the Rayonier parcels between TPM’s former land and ONWR are also likely subjects of mining. One of those, back when it was owned by TIAA, was included in TPM’s original mining application.

TPM’s SHEET 14: GROUNDWATER & SURFACE WATER MONITORING PLAN (2) shows Piezometers clearly in the TIAA tracts west of the Trail Ridge Minerals tracts.

SHEET 14: GROUNDWATER & SURFACE WATER MONITORING PLAN (2)
PDF

Reading closely in the previous sheet, SHEET 13: GROUNDWATER & SURFACE WATER MONITORING PLAN (1) we find: “TWIN PINES MINERALS, LLC (TPM) NO LONGER HAS ACCESS TO THE TIAA-OWNED PROPERTY WEST OF THE MINE.”

SHEET 13: GROUNDWATER & SURFACE WATER MONITO
PDF

Just because TIAA sold that land to Rayonier doesn’t mean it won’t be mined. When Rayonier sold land to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) in 2015, supposedly for conservation, Rayonier retained mineral rights, which it later leased to Chemours for strip-mining that land for TiO2. Chemours has a permit application before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to do just that.

Map: Rayonier Atlantic Timber Company South Tract 8/26/2015 –SRWMD
PDF

Regarding phosphate deposits, a 1966 report showed two almost economically viable test wells near the Suwannee River near Fargo, Georgia. Given advances in mining technology, those sites are probably even more economically viable now.

PHOSPHORITE DRILLHOLE LOCATIONS IN LOWNDES, ECHOLS, CLINCH, AND CHARLTON COUNTIES, GEORGIA
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That 1966 report: PHOSPHORITE EXPLORATION IN PORTIONS OF LOWNDES, ECHOLS, CLINCH AND CHARLTON COUNTIES, GEORGIA, By Norman K, Olson, Industrial Development Department, Southern Railway System, October 1966, Project Report No. 4, South Georgia Minerals Program, Georgia State Division of Conservation, Department of Mines, Mining and Geology.

Let’s not make the mistake everyone made 25 years ago when DuPont proposed to mine TiO2 north of the ONWR entrance. Once that specific mining threat was dealt with, everybody relaxed. But more miners appeared. We must continue working to head off mines.

Finally, I agree with Joe Hopkins on something, see Rose Schnabel, WUFT, November 16, 2024, Georgia’s biggest wildlife refuge is poised for expansion. Here’s why it matters in Florida.

“We’re an extremely low socioeconomic county,” he said of his home (and part of the swamp’s) in Charlton County.

“We [Folkston, Charlton County] just lost two more businesses in the last three months,” he said. “We’re just sitting here, dying on the vine, and all everybody can do is fight over the swamp.”

Charlton County, and all the counties around the Okefenokee Swamp and beyond in south Georgia and north Florida, need better better businesses, so they don’t have to leap at mines and landfills and private prisons for jobs.

WWALS is part of the Okefenokee Partnership that is working for such sustainable economic development, including a Dark Sky Observatory in Clinch County, a Cultural History & Community Center in Charlton County, and a Natural History and Ecological Interpretive Center in Ware County.

The Dark Sky Observatory is part of three projects in The Okefenokee Experience, which is a collaboration of Okefenokee Swamp Park and other organizations, including the three Georgia counties around the Okefenokee Swamp.

The Okefenokee Experience
PDF

Our part so far is mostly water trail signs and maps and suggesting boat ramps, plus chainsaw cleanups, plus promoting the general idea of better jobs.

Suwannee River Water Trail at-water signs planted at Fargo Ramp and Griffis Fish Camp 2024-12-15

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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