By Eric Curl
July 16, 2023 – The front page of the Savannah Morning News 25 years ago today was about an effort to prevent a company from mining titanium next to the Okefenokee wildlife refuge. After facing opposition to the plan, Dupont and environmentalists had developed a potential “non-mining solution” that would likely involve compensating the company for the titanium’s estimated value, according to the article.
More than 20 years later, Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals, is seeking to extract titanium dioxide from the same area after Dupont’s plan failed to move forward.
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The Alabama-based company, Twin Pines Minerals’, plans to recover titanium dioxide and zircon from a 582-acre demonstration mine in Charlton County. At its closest point the mine will be less than three miles from the boundary of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, as reported by Mary Landers in The Current.
The EPD is continuing to review a draft Mining Land Use Plan Twin Pines submitted in January, as reported by Davie Williams of Capitol Beat.
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The author of the 1998 article, former Savannah Morning News reporter Gail Krueger, wrote a column last year about the new mining plan after covering Dupont’s unsuccessful attempt to do the same during during her time at the paper from 1996 through 2002.
“I am dismayed that the fate of this incredible resource is, once again, up for grabs and am troubled that this jewel of Georgia and wetland of international importance still needs permanent protection at its boundaries,” Krueger wrote.
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