For more than 15 months, Georgia regulators have been pondering the issuance of a permit to mine near the Okefenokee Swamp.
Environmentalists who have fought against the permit, saying mining will harm the largest wildlife refuge on the East Coast, were certain a permit decision was about to be issued last summer. When that didn’t happen, they were betting on a post-election announcement. Then Thanksgiving. Then Christmas, then the New Year, then after Trump’s inauguration.
Each date came and went with no decision and the same refrain that EPD spokeswoman Sara Lips repeated again last month: “There are no new updates at this time.”
The lengthy process meant another Georgia legislative session came and went with Okefenokee supporters trying and failing to pass long-term protections for the swamp. For the Alabama-based mining company Twin Pines Minerals, each day without a permit is more money spent.
And as it waits, Twin Pines is showing signs of financial stress. It has delayed paying property tax, disposed of equipment it had staged in Charlton County, and given up a surety bond. Twin Pines President Steve Ingle shrugs off speculation it’s struggling.
“Our mining plans are unchanged, and our finances are in order,” he wrote in an email to The Current. “We are fully prepared to move forward when final permits are issued by the Georgia EPD.”
Environmentalists remain doubtful, suspecting Twin Pines will be unable to mine even if it does get its permits. They’re trying to get ahead of its next move by pressuring a potential buyer of the company, Chemours, to forswear mining near the swamp.
Mining company economizes
Twin Pines has been cutting some costs and falling behind on other payments.
Since at least 2021, the company has been paying personal property taxes on heavy equipment it staged at a site along Trail Ridge, where the land is rich in heavy mineral sands that contain titanium and zirconium.
Twin Pines reduced that tax bill last year by removing more than $56 million in equipment, including fork lifts, scales and a dredge valued at over $6 million, Charlton Chief Appraiser Laurie Thomas said. As a result of its reduction in equipment as well as depreciation on the remaining machinery, Twin Pines’ personal property assessment dropped from $57.3 million in 2023 to $9.8 million in 2024.
Its tax bill dropped by more than half a million dollars, from $681,571 to $98,470. Twin Pines Minerals President Steve Ingle explained the company’s strategy.
“We have reassigned certain equipment to other projects rather than have it sit unused until we receive final permits,” Ingle wrote in an email. “We are positioned to move the necessary mining equipment to the site in a timely manner once we have those permits.”
Along with re-staging equipment, Twin Pines would also have to reinstate its bonding before it could begin mining.
In April, a Twin Pines geologist wrote to EPD to terminate the company’s $15,000 performance bond for drilling. Such a bond is required, along with a mining reclamation bond, for mining to take place. The draft permit indicates that monitoring wells are required during mining. “If Twin Pines Minerals would like to drill in Georgia in the future, please contact us and submit a current bond,” EPD’s Edward Rooks replied to Twin Pines.
Real estate taxes have also tripped up Twin Pines. The mining company fell behind last year on tax payments for the almost 7,800 acres it owns under the Trail Ridge Land LLC name. It still owes $15,193, including over $1,200 in interest and penalties. Online county tax records indicate its next payment is due June 14.
“We are paying our property taxes on time and on a schedule that was previously agreed upon with the county,” Ingle wrote.
And then there are property loans. Charlton County records (see here and here) indicate Trail Ridge Land LLC, an affiliate of Twin Pines, took on security loans with Alabama-based Oakworth Capital Bank totaling about $26 million to buy land in the county in 2018. Each loan had a 5-year term that is now past due.
Last year, Trail Ridge Land took out a $2.9 million mortgage on one tract of land bought under the Trail Ridge Land name. The deadline for repayment was the earlier of the sale of the property or Dec. 15, 2024, indicating Twin Pines expected to get a permit by mid December.
It didn’t. Ingle declined to confirm or deny if the company is in default on its loans, responding instead with the blanket statement that its “finances are in order.”
Okefenokee Swamp supporter Josh Marks, an Atlanta-based attorney who heads up Georgians for the Okefenokee and who helped fend off DuPont’s mining efforts more than 20 years ago, sees it differently.
“The fact that TPM appears to have defaulted on nearly $30M in loans, can’t pay its property taxes, and is giving up its drilling bond shows it has no ability or intent to actually build, operate and maintain the project and instead will sell out if and when it gets its permits,” Marks said. “It’s time for Governor Kemp and EPD to either deny or indefinitely suspend issuance of the permits for this dangerous project and instead work to permanently protect the swamp.”
Marks said the signs point toward two possibilities if a permit is granted: either a sale of the land at a price that accounts for valuable mineral rights or a sale of Twin Pines to another mining company.
Despite the financial pressures, Ingle sounds patient with the permitting process.
“Permit applications take time, and we had not assigned a date on which we expected to begin mining but are ready to move forward when we receive final permits,” he wrote.
Focus on Chemours
Chemours, a spin off of DuPont, is seen by many environmentalists, including Marks, as a likely buyer if Twin Pines sells its operations. Chemours already operates heavy mineral sands mines in Charlton, Wayne and Pierce counties through its subsidiary Southern Ionics. It bills itself as “the world’s largest producer of high-quality titanium dioxide,” the main target of Twin Pines’ proposed efforts.
The company has a history with the Okefenokee. Chemours was spun off from DuPont in 2015. And it was DuPont in the late 1990s that agreed to back off from a previously proposed mine near the Okefenokee, in part due to shareholder pressure.
Chemours also gets a nod of approval from an influential private landowner in Charlton County, Joe Hopkins, who told The Current last year “I honestly wish Chemours was in Twin Pines’ place right now.”
Ingles replied to the speculation the company might sell to Chemours with “no comment.”
In 2022 Chemours responded to shareholder action from The Felician Sisters of North America by pledging to avoid doing business with Twin Pines for 5-10 years, which would throw open the doors in 2027 at the earliest.
With the end of that timeframe nearing, the Felicians again pressed Chemours in April to better protect the Okefenokee.
They filed a shareholder proposal asking the company to create a stronger policy to protect biodiversity at all their mining sites. Chemours’ board advised shareholders to vote against it.
”The Board has determined that it is not in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders to approve this Proposal because it is unnecessary and duplicative,” Chemours wrote in its proxy statement.
But the Felician’s sustainability coordinator Sister Jean Sliwinski and the 6.4% of shareholders who voted for the proposal disagree.
“We’re saying that there are still instances and there are still violations, they’re still facing fines, and maybe other companies in their sector have stronger policies, and maybe they need to develop something a little bit stronger, because they will face not only financial risk, but reputational risk, if something happens,” Sliwinski said in a recent interview with The Current. “The reputational risk is quite powerful.”
The Felicians’ proposal failed, but because the vote topped 5% it can be refiled next year, Sliwinski said.
At the same time as the shareholders meeting, which fell on Earth Day, Georgians for the Okefenokee sent to Chemours president and CEO Denise Dignam letters from over 500 students, leaders/members of the faith community, and conservationists in Georgia urging the company to permanently avoid having anything to do with the Okefenokee Swamp. A coalition of Georgia students wrote to Chemours to pressure the company to make permanent its 2022 short-term commitment to (a) not engage in titanium mining directly or through subsidiaries and (b) not purchase titanium mined by others on Trail Ridge at the Okefenokee Swamp.
“Our hope with the letter was that if Chemours pledges to permanently avoid mining at the swamp itself or purchasing Twin Pines, that Twin Pines Minerals will abandon its efforts to secure permits and that the land may be donated to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge as it was in the ‘90s with Dupont,” wrote Lily Mason, a Georgia Tech senior and representative of the Georgia Student Swamp Coalition.
Through spokeswoman Cassie Olszewski, Chemours declined to comment to The Current about the Earth Day letters.
You must be logged in to post a comment.