WHO WE ARE – Southwest Value Partners

Private real estate investment firm founded in 1990, with offices in San Diego, CA and Scottsdale, AZ.

Currently one of largest private land owners in Greater Phoenix, controlling over 25,000 residential lots throughout the Valley.

Valued relationships with many of the most successful private and public homebuilders in the United States.

WHO WE ARE – Protect Our Water Our Future

We are a consortium of local business representatives, community leaders, adjacent property owners and residents who believe that the proposed Florence Copper Mine Project is directly incompatible with the overall intent and spirit of our community.

As residents of Florence, our goal is to protect the water resources and grow our community in a sustainable, safe manner.  Our wide range of community members feel this process is too risky, untested, and unsustainable to be so close to our community, our water resources, and our families.

Curis Resources is requesting a MAJOR GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT that would substantially alter the Town’s voter adopted General Plan vision for the community.

They are proposing changing from Residential and Commercial type uses to an Overlay District, which would allow for a highly controversial In-Situ Mining process to occur and ancillary industrial uses associated with the mine.

OWNERSHIP EXHIBITOWNERSHIP EXHIBITMERRILL RANCH –8,737 ACRESMERRILL RANCH –8,737 ACRES

Curis Resources’ property (approx 1,192 acres) is within the boundaries of the Merrill Ranch Master Planned Community, which was the result of years of planning, community involvement, and millions of dollars in investments by both private development and the Town of Florence.

The Curis property was envisioned to include approximately 4000 residential home sites, two K-8 school sites, one public facilities site, various open space and park systems, and over 50 acres of commercial /mixed use.

WHAT IS IN-SITU MINING?

In-Situ Mining is a process that injects acidic and caustic chemicals such as sulfuric acid, nitric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and ammonium carbonate deep into the earth in order to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into the targeted deposit of ore. The chemical reaction is severe enough to actually dissolve the metals in the ore.  

WHAT IS IN-SITU MINING?

The extraction process first involves drilling a system of wells into the potential ore deposit. The chemicals are then pumped to the deposit where it makes contact with the ore, and then the solution bearing the dissolved ore content is pumped to a surface pregnant leach solution holding pond and processed through additional chemical processes to extract the mineral.

WHAT IS IN-SITU MINING?

For the proposed Florence Copper Mine Project, wells would be drilled through a drinking water aquifer into the ore body and sulfuric acid would be pumped underground to extract the copper.  

Curis Resources has never developed nor operated a commercially successful mining operation and they have no prior experience utilizing in-situ mining in their short history as a foreign company operating in America.

The proposed mine will be located within 2 miles of existing homes and within less than a 1/2 mile of future planned residential homes.

Curis Resources will be injecting an acidic solution into the same aquifer that will be used in the future by the Florence community.

There are no comparable in-situ mining projects in the U.S. that are in such close proximity to existing residential developments, and that will utilize the same water source that is shared by residents for potable uses.

Elliot D. Pollack & Company (“EDPCO”), a well renowned economic consulting firm in Arizona (www.edpco.com), completed a review of the economic impact study prepared by Western Economic Analysis Center (“WEAC”) dated September 2010 on behalf of Curis.

EDPCO highlighted several questionable claims in the WEAC report that may significantly overstate economic impacts to the local and state economies.

Below are a few highlights from the EDPCO report:

Starting with the impact to Arizona’s economy, the claim that 170 direct jobs created by the mine would produce an additional 920 indirect jobs statewide equates to a multiplier of 6.41.

A multiplier of this magnitude would be unprecedented in the State of Arizona.

The Arizona multiplier for a copper mining project such as this using IMPLAN, a nationally-recognized developer of economic impact modeling systems, would be 2.59, meaning that 170 direct jobs would create an additional 270 indirect and induced jobs throughout Arizona.

To assert that this project would create 248% more jobs than current industry averages is extremely aggressive.

The report states an annual benefit to Florence of $7.6 million, which is very misleading.

When removing the severance tax amount (assumed at $1.05 million annually) that was included in the report which can no longer be received, and other proceeds not directly received by Florence, the impact from the Curis in-situ mine is approximately $654,000 annually.

In total, EDPCO estimates the WEAC report overestimates the economic impact to the State of Arizona by nearly $80.4 million, when adjusting the indirect benefits to a more realistic and standardized figure.

EDPCO also prepared a summary of the economic benefit to Florence under a build-out of the project as a residential and commercial development. The economic benefit to the Town is estimated at over $1.8 million annually over the next 15 years.

At Build-outHomes 4,200Residents 9,700

Residential

YearHomes

BuiltConstruction

ImpactNew

ResidentsSales

TaxProperty

Tax

State Shared

Revenue

Total Resident

ImpactTOTAL

IMPACT Conservative Aggressive2013 $654,000 $1,704,0002014 $654,000 $1,704,0002015 100 $400,843 231 $18,831 $18,831 $419,674 $654,000 $1,704,0002016 150 $601,264 347 $47,077 $47,077 $648,342 $654,000 $1,704,0002017 250 $1,002,107 578 $94,155 $14,133 $108,288 $1,110,395 $654,000 $1,704,0002018 250 $1,002,107 578 $141,232 $35,333 $176,565 $1,178,673 $654,000 $1,704,0002019 250 $1,002,107 578 $188,310 $70,667 $258,976 $1,261,083 $654,000 $1,704,0002020 250 $1,002,107 578 $235,387 $106,000 $804,146 $1,145,533 $2,147,640 $654,000 $1,704,0002021 250 $1,002,107 578 $282,464 $141,333 $804,146 $1,227,944 $2,230,051 $654,000 $1,704,0002022 250 $1,002,107 578 $329,542 $176,667 $804,146 $1,310,354 $2,312,461 $654,000 $1,704,0002023 250 $1,002,107 578 $376,619 $212,000 $804,146 $1,392,765 $2,394,872 $654,000 $1,704,0002024 250 $1,002,107 578 $423,696 $247,333 $804,146 $1,475,176 $2,477,283 $654,000 $1,704,0002025 250 $1,002,107 578 $470,774 $282,667 $1,809,328 $2,562,769 $3,564,876 $654,000 $1,704,0002026 250 $1,002,107 578 $517,851 $318,000 $1,809,328 $2,645,179 $3,647,287 $654,000 $1,704,0002027 250 $1,002,107 578 $564,929 $353,333 $1,809,328 $2,727,590 $3,729,697 $654,000 $1,704,0002028 250 $1,002,107 578 $612,006 $388,667 $1,809,328 $2,810,001 $3,812,108 $654,000 $1,704,0002029 250 $1,002,107 578 $659,083 $424,000 $1,809,328 $2,892,412 $3,894,519 $654,000 $1,704,0002030 250 $1,002,107 578 $706,161 $459,333 $2,814,511 $3,980,005 $4,982,1122031 250 $1,002,107 578 $753,238 $494,667 $2,814,511 $4,062,415 $5,064,5232032 200 $801,686 462 $790,900 $530,000 $2,814,511 $4,135,411 $4,937,0962033 $790,900 $565,333 $2,814,511 $4,170,744 $4,170,7442034 $790,900 $593,600 $2,814,511 $4,199,011 $4,199,0112035 $790,900 $593,600 $3,377,413 $4,761,913 $4,761,913Total 4,200 $16,835,400 9,702 $9,584,955 $6,006,667 $30,517,337 $46,108,958 $62,944,358 $11,118,000 $28,968,000

Avg Annual $2,736,711 $654,000 $1,704,000

15-Year Total 3,000 $12,025,286 6,930 $3,690,867 $1,957,467 $9,448,714 $15,097,048 $27,122,333 $9,810,000 $25,560,000Avg Annual 200 $801,686 462 $246,058 $130,498 $629,914 $1,006,470 $1,808,156 $654,000 $1,704,000

Source: Elliott D. Pollack & Company; IMPLAN; AZ Department of Revenue; ATRA

Copper Project (Avg Annual)

Merrill Ranch Residential Development15 Year Impact Summary

As detailed by Curis, the estimated impact to the FUSD is approximately $3,395,000 annually, based on an estimated assessed valuation of the property of $55,800,700.

As shown in table below, the NAV (Secondary Full Cash Value) of the FUSD went from $328MM in 2007 to $504MM in 2008 to $464MM in 2009 to $334MM in 2010.

Based on 2010 assessed values, the Florence Copper Project would comprise approx 17% of the assessed value in the FUSD, compared with approximately 11% in 2008.

As the economy recovers and the community continues to build out, the impact of the Florence Copper Project will be less over time.

The payment of these proceeds will NOT result in an increase in property tax payments to the FUSD, but rather the project will cause a redistribution of where the tax proceeds are coming from.

As a result, residents and property owners in the FUSD would be likely to see a nominal decrease in taxes in the near term, but over the long term would see their tax rates rise as a result of the copper being depleted.

In summary, EDPCO concludes that over the long term the residential and commercial development of the subject 1200 acres will far exceed any economic benefit that could be generated by the Florence Copper Project

Why risk it?

TOO MANY RISKS

The current General Plan allows for greater economic development and growth in the future than a risky mining operation.

Mining is not compatible/safe with the recent and future residential and commercial developments.

Water resources should be put to safer and more productive and economical uses.

For more information and updates go to:

www.protectourwaterourfuture.com

or email:info@protectourwaterourfutur

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