Boston, June 20, 2025 – The Conservation Fund announced Friday that it had purchased land and mineral rights near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from Twin Pines Minerals, LLC. The mining company had proposed a strip mine roughly three miles from the edge of the Okefenokee, the largest National Wildlife Refuge in the eastern United States.
The proposed titanium mine could have contaminated Georgia’s most famous swamp, threatened the biodiversity-rich ecosystem, and heightened the chances of wildfires.
“For four years, Green Century has pressed companies to avoid mining or selling products containing materials mined at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge,” said Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century. “Twin Pines’ move to sell this land only reinforces our position that mining at the Okefenokee quite simply isn’t worth the risks.”
With a price tag of nearly $60 million, The Conservation Fund will acquire about 8,000 acres of land and the underlying mineral rights from Twin Pines Minerals, which had prior contractual relations with Chemours, located near the swamp that includes a section where the company had proposed a roughly 600-acre titanium mine.
The Okefenokee is a global biodiversity hotspot, freshwater wetland, and carbon sink
Last fall, Green Century Capital Management and the Felician Sisters of North America Endowment Trust filed a shareholder resolution asking chemical company Chemours to assess potentially irreversible biodiversity impacts before mining in ecologically sensitive areas, including at the Okefenokee. Most of Chemours’ mining operations lie in a global biodiversity hotspot, where mining-related impacts such as water pollution and habitat degradation are particularly destructive. The proposal received sufficient investor support to refile in future years.
“As one of the largest freshwater wetlands in the world, a massive carbon sink, and home to over 1,000 species of plants and animals, the Okefenokee is the last place we should be mining for anything,” said Annie Sanders, director of shareholder advocacy at Green Century. “We applaud today’s news that this national treasure is one step closer to protection from harmful and unnecessary mining.”