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It was a case of two gatherings, same location, same subject — but with different views on what the ultimate impact a copper mine would have on the region.

Monday night, hundreds of opponents of the proposed 4,400-acre Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains gathered for the third hearing in two months to make their case against the project.

They said the mine would use too much water, create too much truck traffic and disfigure too much beautiful land.

The hearing was held at the Rincon High School auditorium in Midtown. The crowd at the 500-seat auditorium, about two-thirds full, was heavily tilted against the mine.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Forest Service, your approval of this project will turn these pristine lands into a garbage dump for the benefit of Augusta Mining Co.," testified Peter Davis of Green Valley.

But two days earlier, hundreds of laid-off workers and others looking for better jobs gathered in another meeting room at the same school to make the case for why they deserve to be hired by Rosemont and other mining companies.

People were lined up outside the school nearly an hour before the four-hour session began. They stood in line for up to an hour inside filling out paperwork for possible jobs.

And at that session, most of two dozen people interviewed spoke in favor of the mine.

One of them was Pres Tamez, a Northwest Side resident who had just been laid off from his job resurfacing countertops and bathtubs in homes because of a slowdown in business.

On Saturday, he was in a line for the Rosemont facility. "I'm just looking for a job to support my family," Tamez said. "Whoever offers me a job, I'll probably take it."

But for Mylan Webb, a junior at Cienega High School, the mine would make a safety hazard on Interstate 10 where her parents drive to work each day.

Webb was also frustrated that the Forest Service hadn't held a hearing in the Vail area where she lives, although that growing community is closer to the proposed mine than many other communities.

"My dad drives 100 miles round-trip to work and uses vegetable oil for fuel — he uses the same interstate that will be used to haul copper," she said.

But on Saturday, Mike Wallace and Robert Canton said they would be glad to work at Rosemont when and if the mine opened. Wallace, a longtime miner, is unemployed, while Canton works temporary jobs in Tucson.

"I'm an environmentalist but you've gotta live, too. If a job is happening, fine," Canton said.

Wallace said "you can always clean it up," referring to mines that leave behind polluted water and soil.

The proposed Rosemont mine would be an open-pit facility, lying 30 miles south of Downtown Tucson, with 3,300 acres of Forest Service land, 1,000 acres of private land and the rest state and Bureau of Land Management Land.

The pit would be on private land, and the mine's waste rock — tailings — would be kept on Forest Service land. That fact irritated a few opponents of the mine who spoke at the hearing.

Arizona 83 would be the main access route into the mine, although officials are considering a secondary access route from the north.

Despite Forest Service promises of reclamation at the hearing, opponents weren't reassured.

"Let's see if I have this plan correct. We plan to dig a big hole in the ground, not unlike ones left in Bisbee. We plan on doing this in a pristine national forest setting. We plan on leaving debris, we call it tailings now, in piles for some other generation to clean up," testified Terry O'Rourke of Vail. "We plan on blasting and digging day and night, causing noise pollution, light pollution, air pollution and water pollution.

"And we think this is a good idea because … the price of copper went up, and somebody will make a lot of money."

Chuck Hammond of the Sonoita area held up a copper-laden cell phone and a plastic bottle of water to illustrate what he saw as a stark choice.

"There's simply not enough water left in the West for us to be able to continue to have both of these things. We will have to give up one or the other. Now I can live without the cell phone. But this I can't live without," he said, holding the water bottle.

One of the smaller number of Rosemont supporters at the hearing testified, however, that this country needs the copper that the mine would produce.

"The nation's dependence on copper imports rose from 0 percent in 1991 to 40 percent in the past five years," testified David Briggs, a veteran mining industry consulting geologist. "Access to federal lands is essential to maintaining a healthy resource base. The prosperity of our children's future depends on decisions we make today."

But at Saturday's session, a couple of prospective employees who stood in one of the lines said they would steer away from working at Rosemont because of the controversy surrounding it.

"I can see where the landscaping would go away," said Gabriel Garbay, 33, a South Side resident. "I understand the jobs are there. But once you get rid of the beauty it will never comes back. All you will see is that you will look out your window and see a bunch of dirt."

Lyman Tinnie, a foreman at the Rosemont Ranch that would become the mine site, testified at the hearing that the mine would be a benefit.

"Everything in this world is either mined or grown. You can't make something out of thin air. If you want to get something out of metal, you have to mine it," Tinnie said. "The more things we can keep on our home turf, the more jobs we have, the better economy we have."