Stop Strip mining planned next to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

An Alabama company is planning to strip mine for titanium and other heavy minerals in an area of Charlton County bordering the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The first phase of the project will bring permanent impacts to 65 acres of wetlands and nearly a mile of tributaries, the company predicted. Gopher tortoises, a threatened species that is considered a "keystone" species on which other animals depend, will be impacted due to construction of facilities and mining activities. Mining this area will destroy one of the rarest ecosystems still present in the United States.