This story was updated on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at 6:12 p.m.
After half a decade of public comments, permit revisions, scientific inquiries and debates, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has completed everything needed for a controversial mining project next door to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
The department says applicant Twin Pines Minerals, LLC must pay a fee of about $2 million to complete the permit, but the company hasn’t settled up, putting the long-sought-after permit in purgatory.
The EPD said it has completed all it can on the permit until it receives payment — the EPD did not specify what permit requirements are left after the payment is secured.
What is this fee?
Georgia requires companies applying for permits to do mining to pay a financial assurance. Associate attorney Peter Slag with the Southern Environmental Law Center describes this as something like a security deposit.
“When you rent an apartment, a $2,000 security deposit will cover most of the conceivable damage that you might cause living in an apartment,” Slag said. “But in this case, it’s like having a security deposit for the Grand Canyon or for Yellowstone — and if you break or degrade the Okefenokee, no amount of money, and certainly not $2 million, is going to be adequate to address those kinds of harms.”
According to the Georgia EPD, the applicants have to pay up to $2,500 per acre. That money can either be given back after all the mining is completed and the permit is done — or it can be used for remediation and cleaning up the site.
SELC has intervened in this permitting process for several years, arguing the mining plan underestimates potential damage to the delicate swamp ecosystem. Slag said Georgia is requiring the maximum amount of financial assurance from Twin Pines, which comes out to just over $2 million.
“In reality, here — $2 million is a small amount of money given the risks that this mine poses,” Slag said.
Why hasn’t Twin Pines paid?
Twin Pines Minerals, LLC declined to comment for this story.
In an email to WABE, a representative from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division said Twin Pines hasn’t made any partial or full payments. They said the request for the financial assurance was sent to Twin Pines back in February of 2024.
Since then, advocates against the mine have been questioning the finances of Twin Pines Minerals LLC.
An attorney for the SELC spoke to WABE last September about Twin Pines’ property taxes, noting that the company has failed to pay over $350,000 in property taxes to Charlton County despite receiving conservation tax credits.
The Current reports that Twin Pines has been cutting costs in several ways. They say the company reduced its tax bill last year by removing more than $56 million in equipment, including forklifts, scales and a dredge valued at over $6 million, according to Charlton Chief Appraiser Laurie Thomas.
The Current also reports that in April, Twin Pines terminated a $15,000 performance bond for drilling that would have to be reinstated before mining work could be done.
The Georgia EPD said there is no deadline for Twin Pines Minerals, LLC to make this payment to complete the permit, leaving the project in limbo for now.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the fee is the only item left to complete the permit. It clarifies the EPD stated all requirements up until the payment have been completed, but that the EPD did not specify what permit requirements are left after the payment.
