A small Tucson-based mining company wants Ironwood Forest National Monument to lose its federal protection, with its CEO saying it’s stopping him from building a major copper mine that could earn $80 billion over its life.

James Briscoe, CEO of Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp., hopes to persuade the Trump administration to rescind a presidential designation that created the 129,000-acre monument northwest of Tucson 17 years ago. He calls the designation a “taking” of his private property rights, which he says were formed by his mining clams on federal land.

Thursday, Aug. 24, is the legal deadline for the Interior Department to decide whether to keep or eliminate monument status or reduce the size of Ironwood and 20 other monuments nationally, including two others in Arizona. Originally, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was reviewing 27 existing monuments. He has since decided not to touch six of them, including Grand Canyon-Parashant Monument in Northern Arizona.

Briscoe’s project would bring the region far more than $80 billion in total economic benefits, and would have “a very small footprint” on the land because of what he calls the company’s innovative mining approach, he told the Interior Department.