Land deal ends controversial mining fight near Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp

Washington Post

20-06-2025

A contentious, years-long fight over a proposed mine next to one of the South's last truly wild places ended abruptly Friday, when a nonprofit group announced it would spend nearly $60 million to acquire thousands of acres of land near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in rural Georgia.
The Conservation Fund, which works around the country to acquire and protect threatened landscapes, said it had agreed to purchase roughly 7,800 acres from Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, as well as the underlying mineral rights.
The landmark deal halted a proposed titanium mine on the site, which has been the subject of legal and political fights, as well as sustained criticism from advocacy groups, scientists, lawmakers and other citizens. The opponents argued that mining the mineral-rich area known as Trail Ridge would not only be risky but also environmentally reckless, given its proximity to the largest blackwater swamp in North America.
'This is the most important deal we've worked on,' said Stacy Funderburke, vice president of the central Southeast region for The Conservation Fund, who said the group felt compelled to end the prospect of mining near the Okefenokee. 'It's just a unique place.'
Funderburke said the purchase came after about a year of negotiations, and was possible in part because of significant support from a number of individuals and philanthropic groups — including the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to environmental protection and funded by the outdoor gear company Patagonia.
Friday's news brought praise — and relief — from activists who had opposed the mine over the past 6 years.
'This is an incredibly special outcome, and there is no place more deserving than the Okefenokee,' Megan Huynh, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement Friday. 'Georgians sent a clear message to Twin Pines Minerals that mining next to the Okefenokee is an unacceptable risk. This wouldn't have been possible without a powerful coalition, and regular Georgians who were willing to stand up and defend a place as beloved as the Okefenokee.'
The roughly 640-square-mile refuge in southeastern Georgia supports an astounding array of life, from black bears and red-cockaded woodpeckers to thousands of alligators. It is home to black gum trees and carnivorous plants with names such as hooded pitcher and golden trumpet. It is the headwaters for two rivers, the Suwannee and the St. Marys. And its vast peat deposits, formed by the slow decomposition of plants and 15 feet deep in places, store enormous amounts of carbon.
Formed by a saucer-shaped depression left behind when the ocean retreated thousands of years ago, the Okefenokee is now a shallow, sprawling, mystical bog, fed almost entirely by rainwater — and a place that draws an estimated 800,000 annual visitors.
'Everything you see around us is old seafloor,' Michael Lusk, who manages the refuge on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told The Post during a visit last year.
It is also a fragile ecosystem — one that proponents feared could easily be upended by a nearby mining operation.
Twin Pines, which in an email declined to comment on Friday's land deal, initially sought permits in 2019 to mine roughly 2,400 acres near the southeastern corner of the swamp. The company later amended its requests and sought to operate on a 582-acre site, vowing that its investment would expand the local tax base and bring hundreds of good-paying jobs to an area where poverty runs deep.
The company insisted that its operations to extract titanium dioxide — widely used as a pigment in paints, sunscreens and an array of other products — would not leave a lasting scar on the land or threaten the beloved swamp. It vowed to mine only a small portion at a time, to dig no deeper than 50 feet, and to operate no closer than 2.9 miles from the swamp.
Last year, Georgia's Environmental Protection Division issued draft permits that, if finalized, would have allowed the project to move forward. In its responses to the tens of thousands of public comments it had received raising concerns about the mine, the agency wrote in part that it believed the proposed operation 'should have a minimal impact' on the swamp.
Such findings did not assuage opponents, who included some local residents, admirers of the swamp far beyond Georgia's borders, and even the Biden administration.
During one three-hour public hearing last year, nearly 100 people spoke passionately against the proposed project, as hundreds more listened in. No one spoke in favor.
College students, grandparents, scientists, environmental activists, outdoor enthusiasts and local residents issued similar pleas, pleading with state officials to halt the project.
They quoted the Bible, the Torah and University of Georgia hydrology findings. They described the Okefenokee as 'majestic,' 'sacred' and 'precious.' They called the idea of mining anywhere near it 'irresponsible,' 'heartbreaking' and 'shortsighted.'
On Friday, Funderburke said the land deal should be fully complete by the end of July. Over time, he said, the group plans to manage the site for permanent conservation and allow public access.
'It felt like the most urgent thing was to stop the mining threat, which was imminent,' said Funderburke, who said he has been coming to the swamp each year for decades, often bringing along his daughters. 'There's just no other place like the Okefenokee.'
Even as the most recent fight over the swamp's fate ended on Friday, advocates warned that it might not be the last such confrontation.
In the 1990s, DuPont pursued plans to mine titanium dioxide across tens of thousands of acres in the area, which is home to significant deposits of titanium dioxide and other minerals.
At the time, the federal government joined environmental groups, scientists and local residents to fight the plan. 'Titanium is a common mineral,' Bruce Babbitt, President Bill Clinton's interior secretary, said during a 1997 visit, 'while the Okefenokee is a very uncommon swamp.'
DuPont eventually abandoned the project and donated 16,000 acres for conservation.
Josh Marks, an environmental attorney who has fought mining near the swamp for decades, called Friday's land deal a 'huge victory' for 'our state's greatest natural treasure.' But, he warned in an email, 'The threat is not over by a long shot.'
He implored state lawmakers to finally pass proposed legislation that would safeguard the Okefenokee from future mining, and for the governor to sign it, 'so that we don't have to keep having these fights every 20 years.'