Despite Resolution Copper recently acquiring 2,422 acres of federal lands through a decade-old congressional exchange, the company still needs Arizona land to hold all of the waste the massive mine could produce during its six decade lifetime.
Opposition is mounting against this proposal in a Monday letter to Gov. Katie Hobbs.
More than 50 groups — including the Center for Biological Diversity, Apache Stronghold and the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition — are urging the state Land Department under Hobbs not to sell or lease anything to Resolution Copper.
Without such a deal, the multinational mining company could be left with nowhere to build a needed tailings storage facility. For now, the plan is to erect a nearly three-mile-long, 500-foot-high dam just north of the Gila River.
Skunk Camp could one day store about 1.4 billion tons of mine waste. The roughly 8,200-acre site is located in the Dripping Springs Valley — east of Coolidge Dam near the historic copper mining town of Kearny.
“Arizonans would bear the environmental risks ... while foreign investors reap the profits,” the letter claims. Its authors are asking the Hobbs administration to stand with Arizonans by denying any proposal that would turn state trust lands into a “permanent dumping ground for foreign-owned mining operations.”
In response to the letter, Resolution Copper told KJZZ that this proposed tailings facility “has undergone independent, third-party expert reviews for safety, stability, and water quality,” adding that its location was selected through consultations with communities, including tribes, and was even changed based on their feedback.
Meanwhile, Hobbs has yet to weigh in.
Read the letter to Hobbs from tribal advocacy groups [pdf] →
-
![Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren [left] Gov. Katie Hobbs and Hopi Chairman Lamar Keevama sign a memorandum of understanding for coal-impacted communities at the Desert Botanical Garden on Aug. 11, 2026.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7ad88d7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4158x2317+0+505/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa5%2F46%2F67ddb3664347bcd872157bbfffaf%2Fnavajo-hopi-az-agreement-cg-20260811.JPG)
The six-page MOU is being touted as a blueprint for cooperation between the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and the state of Arizona — all of which are “vulnerable to future coal mine and generating station closures.” -
Leadership clarified that non-members — including employees or residents, guests of tribal members, travelers on public roadways and vendors tied to the Tohono O’odham Gaming Enterprise — may still travel freely “without any restrictions.” -
![The Long family [clockwise from top left] Joni Lapahie, Dáilan Long, Jona Lapahie, Emma Long and Emery Long.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ac75967/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2246+0+389/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8c%2F3e%2Fcb7758794c59b588da1f9a3323b8%2Flong-family-household-burnham-nm-gp-202602.jpg)
Coal has long been the economic bedrock of the Navajo Nation, which owns deposits in Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico. Now, the tribe is asking the Trump administration to dramatically expand the life — and size — of an operational coal mine that could uproot the lives of some Navajo families. And their longtime homes — literally. -
So instead of Santa hand-delivering stockings of coal along with his team of reindeer, it’s NTEC — or the Navajo Transitional Energy Company — with its diesel-powered trucks trekking across the sprawling 27,000-square-mile reservation. -
Coal is perhaps most closely associated with Appalachian states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky — or Wyoming, the nation’s leading producer of the fossil fuel. But the coal-mining business was once thriving in northern Arizona as well, atop the Colorado Plateau.
![Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren [left] Gov. Katie Hobbs and Hopi Chairman Lamar Keevama sign a memorandum of understanding for coal-impacted communities at the Desert Botanical Garden on Aug. 11, 2026.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bcf9baa/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4158x2317+0+505/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa5%2F46%2F67ddb3664347bcd872157bbfffaf%2Fnavajo-hopi-az-agreement-cg-20260811.JPG)
![The Long family [clockwise from top left] Joni Lapahie, Dáilan Long, Jona Lapahie, Emma Long and Emery Long.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8f96e94/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2246+0+389/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8c%2F3e%2Fcb7758794c59b588da1f9a3323b8%2Flong-family-household-burnham-nm-gp-202602.jpg)
