Company: Legal settlement puts Okefenokee mine back on track

The Okefenokee Swamp is the largest intact blackwater swamp on the continent. The National Wildlife Refuge that protects most of the swamp is the biggest refuge east of the Mississippi. (Courtesy of USFWS)

A company seeking to mine in Georgia near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp’s vast wildlife refuge said Monday that its project is back on track after a federal agency reversed a June decision that had posed a big setback.

Twin Pines Minerals said the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the company by once again relinquishing the agency’s regulatory oversight of the proposed mine in southeast Georgia near the Okefenokee, home to the largest U.S. wildlife refuge east of the Mississippi River.

“We appreciate the Corps’ willingness to reverse itself and make things right,” Twin Pines President Steve Ingle said in a statement, calling the development “great news” for the project.