A company that wants to mine for titanium dioxide near the Okefenokee Swamp in Southeast Georgia has submitted a new plan with a much smaller footprint than its original proposal.
Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals is seeking permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to set up a mining operation on nearly 900-acres adjacent to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge just across the Florida-Georgia state line.
The company withdrew its original request for around 1,400 acres last month.
Federal wildlife officials told the Army Corps in October they were worried that the project would cause substantial and irreversible environmental damage to refuge.
The company's own study, however, concluded the impact would be negligible.
North Florida Congressman Al Lawson is pushing the Army Corps to require an environmental impact statement before it decides whether to approve the mining operation.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter at @cydwjctnews.
