The Alabama-based company planning to open a titanium mine adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp has not submitted $2.1 million in financial assurances required to get a permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD).

Georgia law requires applicants for surface mining permits to submit such assurances to the state to ensure they will have the financial wherewithal to complete site reclamation once they finish mining activities.

The EPD sent a letter to Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) in February of last year requesting the financial assurances. However, as of last Friday, the company has yet to make even a partial payment or put up a partial bond, the state agency said Monday in a prepared statement.

Twin Pines’ failure to deliver financial assurances on the Charlton County project comes as the company faces several lawsuits in other states alleging it owes millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

The company first proposed in 2020 a plan to mine titanium oxide along Trail Ridge in Charlton County, near the southeastern edge of the largest black water swamp in North America.

The project has drawn opposition from local governments in southeastern Georgia and environmental advocates, citing scientific studies showing the mine would damage one of the largest intact freshwater wetlands in North America by drawing down its water level. At the state Capitol, efforts in the Georgia House to place a moratorium on mining near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge or ban mining altogether have failed to gain even a committee vote, much less reach the floor of the chamber.

Supporters of mining have countered that the project would serve as an important source of jobs in a high-poverty area of southeastern Georgia.

Specifically, the most serious lawsuit hanging over Twin Pines was filed earlier this year by Arizona-based M&L Commodities Inc., which entered into an agreement with Twin Pines back in 2021 to receive, store, and prepare for shipment a certain type of sand.

M&L began demanding payment of the full outstanding balance from the agreement early last year and received assurances from Twin Pines executives that the company was financially viable and experiencing only a temporary cash flow shortage, according to the suit.

After M&L informed Twin Pines it would stop performing the contracted service until it received payment, Twin Pines executed a promissory note that was due to be paid by last December. When the money still wasn’t forthcoming, M&L took its case to court in March.

The lawsuit alleges Twin Pines has been insolvent since early in 2023 and that one of its executives has a track record of criminal prosecutions for fraud.

Twin Pines declined to comment Monday on either the lawsuits or the mining project.

But environmental lawyer Josh Marks, president of the nonprofit Georgians for the Okefenokee, said the controversy swirling around Twin Pines should be enough to convince the EPD to deny its mining permit application.

“In my over 30 years of work in law and conservation, never have I seen an entity so apparently unwilling to tell the truth, honor its agreements, or follow the law, certainly not one whose director is a serial felon,” Marks said. “If these latest allegations are true, TPM has gone from a very bad actor to a truly atrocious one that should not be allowed to operate anywhere in Georgia, much less long the edge of the Okefenokee.”

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.