The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied requests that it block the transfer of public land known as Oak Flat to the private mining company Resolution Copper. This clears the way for mining after a decades-long legal battle.
Oak Flat is a popular campground and site the San Carlos Apache Tribe considers sacred that sits on top of one of the world’s largest copper deposits. Now, more than 2,400 acres have been transferred to the company Resolution Copper.
The Ninth Circuit notes that this will fundamentally alter the land, including destruction of sites revered by Native Americans.
Conservationists with the Sierra Club call the decision devastating but say the legal fight isn’t over. Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva says the site was traded in a backroom deal that ignored tribal sovereignty.
The transfer came three days after a federal appeals court denied a request for an injunction from tribes and environmental activists seeking to derail the project.
“Completing this land exchange unlocks a major domestic source of copper, essential for defense, grid modernization, and next-generation energy,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement announcing the land transfer.
Oak Flat, on the outskirts of the Tonto National Forest, holds an estimated $150 billion worth of copper but mining it will destroy land used in religious and coming-of-age ceremonies by the San Carlos Apache and other tribes.
“It's not the end of the road,” said Russ McSpadden, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. But, he said, “it's devastating because the land has transferred.”
The area has been a contentious topic in Arizona for decades.
Resolution Copper estimates that Oak Flat could yield up to 40 billion pounds of copper over 40 years.
The land had been protected from mining for nearly 60 years under an order issued by President Dwight Eisenhower.
That changed in 2014, when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slipped a provision into a defense bill allowing the federal government to swap 2,422 acres of the Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper.
Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group that has tried to block the land transfer.
In a statement, Resolution Copper President Vicky Peacey said the project has cleared a rigorous environmental review.
“This review has included extensive consultation and collaboration with numerous Native American tribes, local communities, civil society organizations, and a dozen federal, state, and county agencies,” she said.
The process led to some major design changes “to preserve access to Oak Flat and physically avoid areas of cultural significance identified by tribes. We are encouraged to see so much local support for the Resolution Copper project, and our ongoing dialogue will continue to shape the approach moving forward.”
Rollins said the delays have been “a prime example of bureaucratic and legal chokeholds preventing our rural communities, supply chains, and defense industry from producing the minerals we need right here in America.”
But Rep. Jared Huffman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, called the land transfer a “human rights violation, an environmental disaster in the making, and a multibillion-dollar giveaway to foreign mining companies.”
Opponents say the fight will continue in court, however.
“We'll have to wait and see, once all the litigation plays out, whether or not this mine ever truly goes through,” McSpadden said. “They’re still years away from being an operational mine, and we will continue to fight that tooth and nail now alongside our Apache allies.”
“It's definitely a huge setback,” said Dana Orozco, federal organizer for Chispa Arizona, a group that advocates for environmental justice. “I think this is kind of the final decision. This has been a really long fight.”
Critical mineral
The U.S. produced 1 million tons of copper in 2025, worth $11 billion, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But demand is about 2.5 million tons, and imports have grown rapidly in the last five years with the explosion of data centers and artificial intelligence.
Arizona is the leading copper-producing state. Last year, it accounted for about 70% of domestic output, according to USGS data. But the U.S. still imports 45% of all copper it needs.
In November, USGS added copper to the federal list of critical mineral resources.
Copper is used in electrical wiring, power generation, telecommunications, industrial machinery and military hardware and ammunition.
“Resolution Copper is a key U.S. strategic asset … at a time of historically high copper prices and a large supply-demand gap opening up,” Morgan Bazilian, professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines, said by email.
“Copper is a crucial resource for America's energy future, modern infrastructure needs, and national defense. Ensuring a domestic supply of this critical mineral supports not only Arizona’s economy but also the nation’s broader economic and security goals,” said Peacey, the Resolution Copper president.
But opponents of the Oak Flat mine call it a threat to national security, noting that Resolution Copper is partly owned by China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of copper.
The company is jointly owned by British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto and BHP, also based in Australia. Rio Tinto’s largest investor is the Aluminum Corporation of China, Chinalco, a state-owned entity that holds nearly 15% of the company.
Most copper mined in the U.S. is smelted in Mexico, Canada, Japan and China. Roughly 18% of U.S. ore is processed in China.
“The American people won’t see a single cent in royalties because our mining laws don’t require it,” said Huffman.
Differing views in Congress
In December, Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Tucson, introduced the Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act, which would repeal the land swap provision authored by McCain in 2014. The measure has 32 co-sponsors, all Democrats.
"Oak Flat is not just a piece of land: it is a place of prayer, ceremony, and identity for the Apache people," she said Monday after thee land transfer was finalized. "This site should never have been traded away to foreign mining giants in a backroom deal that ignored Tribal sovereignty, shut the public out of the process, and will destroy vital environmental and critical water resources.”
In 2015, Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who was a House member at the time, co-sponsored a similar measure pushed by Grijalva’s late father, Raúl Grijalva.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, whose district includes Oak Flat, has been a proponent of the mine, saying it would be a “massive investment in both the national and local economy.”
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Bullhead City, said the mine will “strengthen America’s domestic supply of critical minerals, support thousands of good-paying jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries for copper needed in everything from national defense to modern infrastructure.”
Other Arizona lawmakers have expressed sympathy with the tribes without taking up their cause.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Phoenix, has called for “strong environmental safeguards” and consultation with tribes. “Responsible mining can play an important economic role, and strengthening supply chains and reducing reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals are important goals,” she said in a statement.
Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe have protested outside the office of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who last year introduced a bill to add copper to a federal list of critical minerals.
“Copper and other critical materials are essential to our energy security, manufacturing, and national defense,” Kelly wrote.
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
