Morris Farr is a resident of Sonoita and vice chairman of Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, a nonprofit group opposed to mining in the Santa Rita Mountains.

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In May, Augusta Resource Corporation, aka Rosemont Copper, released its quarterly report to stockholders and the press. Since this is a company that has nothing to report to its investors but red ink — only expenses and no revenue — one might expect it to put the best light on its situation, which it did.

However, a few of its statements might be deemed misleading and certainly a careful investor might well decide that the things that the compnay did not tell investors were considerably more interesting than the things it did.

The company mentions the fact that the Forest Service has "conducted a total of six public scoping meetings to gather comments from the surrounding communities" and conveniently fails to mention that opposition to the mine was overwhelming at all of those meetings and that the one in Elgin attracted 300 angry residents of Sonoita, Patagonia and Elgin.

In three hours of testimony at that meeting, mine supporters generated only nine minutes of support for the mine. The balance of the evening was a parade of determined opponents.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., the congresswoman for the district containing the proposed mine, also spoke about the mine-approval process.

Another fact not mentioned is that due to strong local opposition and the intervention of Giffords, the Forest Service added three meetings and extended the scoping process until mid-July.

The report also fails to point out to investors that the governing bodies of Pima and Santa Cruz counties and the cities of Tucson, Sahuarita, Oro Valley, Marana and Patagonia have all unanimously passed resolutions opposing the mine.

The company failed to note that U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., the other congressman representing Southeast Arizona, has criticizing the Forest Service's public-comment process as "flawed" and is opposed to the mine.

The report notes that "the mining plan of operations was deemed sufficient to initiate the process for preparing an environmental impact statement."

It fails to note that final approval for the mining plan has never been granted by the Forest Service.

Our organization, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, and both local congressional representatives have asked that the scoping process be suspended and restarted only when a complete mining plan is available to the public.

The report also trumpets the acquisition of a "water supply site" while failing to tell the investors about potential lawsuits from local agricultural interests.

Also on the list of things not mentioned is that Pima County has hired its own hydrologist. His modeling of the area surrounding the mine has led the county to demand extensive hydrological studies, which will require many months of data acquisition.

We can only hope that Augusta's investors will have the foresight to carefully evaluate the company's rosy outlook and consider other sources of information as they weigh the value of their investments.