Okefenokee Titanium Mine Fight Escalates With Interior Move (2)

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s implicit threat of legal action against a proposed titanium dioxide mine on the flanks of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp raises unresolved questions about the scope of the agency’s authority to protect public lands outside their boundaries, legal experts say.

Haaland wrote a November letter, made public this week, to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) urging the state to avoid permitting Twin Pines Metals LLC’s proposed mine near Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia.

The mine is planned for a site about three miles outside the refuge on a low ridge that helps to contain the Okefenokee ...