The article is disingenuous.
The water for this project would be supplied by the mine itself because at the depth they are working they need to constantly pump huge amounts of ground water seeping into the mine out of the mine.
The area of this mine is already covered with existing open pit mines and underground mines so its’ not like they they are going into pristine , untouched wilderness and destroying it.
They are just putting a new mine in next door to several very similar mines that getting to the ends of their lives.
The new mine would actually help the environment because it keeps the area active and makes sure the infrastructure is kept in good working order rather being abandoned and left to rot.
And in addition to your point about the proximity of other mines, they are hard to spot from Google Earth in a regional view, even county area view. They are South and East of Tucson. A square mile of desert isn’t a lot of land and this new mine will be far less impactful than the old ones.
Here is the problem though. We are being logical and justifying something we believe is needed. We might be trying to justify it to someone whose minimum acceptable level if disturbance is ZERO not less, not some but ZERO. There is no negotiation point other than ZERO development that is acceptable to them. We are wasting our breath, time and effort trying to reason with them.