The Okefenokee Swamp is considered one of the most unique ecosystems in the world, but it could be threatened by a mine that a company wants to build less than three miles from the wildlife refuge.

Channel 2′s Bryan Mims was able to boat into and fly over the federally protected refuge. It is located in the southeast corner of the state and sits on the Florida line.

Earlier this month, state regulators in Atlanta issued draft permits for the project bringing the proposed titanium mine one step closer to reality.

What’s being done to try and stop the mining from happening from happening, LIVE on Channel 2 Action News starting at 5 p.m.

it’s one of those places where you can’t fathom the magnitude of, and once you’re here, you can just feel the magic,” said Alice Keyes, with the environmental advocacy group 100 Miles.

“It’s necessary that we keep this place in the pristine state that it’s in, because man had nothing to do in creating this place,” pastor Antwon Nixon told Mims.

Nixon and Deborah Reed grew up in the shadow of the swamp.

“You just don’t find it anywhere else, so why should you want to endanger it?” Reed said.

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They say the Okefenokee should be revered like our most iconic national treasures.

But along the eastern rim of the swamp runs a line of ancient sand dunes called Trail Ridge. It’s where, eons ago, the ocean washed ashore. The sand is rich in minerals — notably titanium dioxide.

An Alabama-based company called Twin Pines Minerals, LLC wants to dig it out so the titanium dioxide can be used as a whitening agent for things like sunscreen, toothpaste and paint.

“So, they’re basically going to dig a big hole. The hole at the bottom is going to be 500 feet long, 100 feet wide and 50 feet deep,” University of Georgia hydrology professor Rhett Jackson said.

The mine would pump more than a million gallons of groundwater every day — water that would have flowed into the swamp.

“You essentially triple the frequency of severe drought in the southeastern portion of the swamp and that’s the reason the Twin Pines Mine is a bad idea,” Jackson said.

Twin Pines Minerals declined an interview with Mims and referred him to a video on its website. It said given the elevation of the mine, the swamp and the river, the Okefenokee would be safe.

Twin Pines president Steve Ingle sent Channel 2 Action News a statement, saying:

“Twin Pines has spent tens of millions of dollars to prove their mining process will not harm the Okefenokee or surrounding environs. The draft permits are validation that the science has been accepted by EPD.”

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