Resolution Copper (RCM) is a joint venture owned by Rio Tinto and BHP formed to develop and operate an underground copper mine near Superior, Arizona, USA.
Resolution Copper’s proposed mine near the site of Oak Flat in Arizona will eventually create a giant sinkhole on land sacred to the Western Apache people.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, declined to comment on the latest court order, but said the bill authorizing the land transfer aligns with the Trump administration’s efforts “to strengthen domestic mineral and energy production, advancing the nation’s economic and strategic goals.”
In April, the Trump administration signaled it would approve the project. A years-long religious freedom case brought by Apache Stronghold, an Apache religious group, was denied by the Supreme Court in May. Then, the U.S. Forest Service posted the final environmental impact statement and draft record of decision for the Resolution Copper project, setting the stage for Oak Flat to be transferred to the mining company by Aug. 19.
Rio Tinto and BHP expect to make lots of money with this copper mine. Environmental and sacred land laws are being shredded. Greedy people like to invest in these sink hole projects.
From the OP:
“Resolution Copper (RCM) is a joint venture owned by Rio Tinto and BHP formed to develop and operate an underground copper mine near Superior, Arizona”
Thanks for pointing that out. Certainly better than the open pit mines that are common in AZ.
Tangential but I think relevant to problems with our mining laws:
From the end of WWII until the mid 1980s uranium mining was one of the main economic drivers for much of southeastern Utah and parts of western Colorado. A number of reduction and milling facilities were built right on the banks of rivers like the Colorado, San Miguel, San Juan and Dolores. When the industry went bust the companies walked away and left the mess. A huge pile of tailings from the Atlas mill was left on the banks of the Colorado and right next door to the town of Moab. A lobbying effort resulted in the Federal government deciding to move the tailings to a site 30 miles north of Moab and to bury those tailings in huge clay lined pits.
The project began in 2009 and was estimated to cost 1 billion dollars. Initially expected to take 10 years to complete it now appears to be more like a 20 year completion timeline. The current rate of expenditure is $67 million per year.
The other mill tailings in the region have just been covered over in place. Is it worth the cost to move the Moab tailings? That’s debatable I suppose. Aside from the fact that it was leaching some nasty chemicals into the Colorado, it theoretically posed health threats to the population of Moab.
The fact that they allowed the siting of these mills on the banks of the various rivers in the region points up the lax regulations. Exacerbated by the fact that there was intense pressure by the US government to encourage uranium mining in order to supply the nuclear weapons programs with the materials it needed.
There have been minor reforms but the mining industry still operates under the antiquated Mining Law of 1872. There have been attempts at major reforms but the mining industry has successfully fought those attempts.
The project involves a large open-pit mine, which would require massive amounts of water, and could lead to the destruction of sacred sites and significant environmental damage.
This proposed mine would also create an 8,647-acre/13.5 square mile toxic waste dump on state lands to store its mine waste in perpetuity, betray U.S. treaty and trust responsibilities to Tribal Nations, and, according to several studies, deplete and contaminate vast amounts of groundwater in Arizona.
Resolution Copper is owned by Anglo-Australian miners Rio Tinto (55%) and BHP Group (45%). Rio Tinto’s single largest shareholder is the Aluminum Corporation of China, a Chinese state-owned mining company that holds nearly 15%of Rio Tinto’s stock. This is a huge stake in a multi-national mining company. Rio Tinto’s single largest customer is also China, which accounted for a whopping 57% of its sales last year.
For decades, Resolution has engaged in a false information campaign to mislead Arizonans and other Americans about this proposed mine at Oak Flat.
It is time to set the record straight with this list of myths vs. facts!
Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform came after he and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met at the White House with the CEOs of Rio and BHP, two of the world’s largest mining companies, which have been trying to develop Resolution for more than a decade.
The mine’s construction would cause a crater that would swallow a site where the Apache worship.
"U.S. District Judge Dominic W. Lanza on Friday denied the tribe and environmental groups’ challenges, which had cleared the way for the land transfer to go through. In his order, he acknowledged the mine would destroy the sacred area and use a massive amount of the region’s scarce groundwater.
But he noted that the transfer was signed into law in 2014 by President Barack Obama—mandated by Congress in a rider attached to a defense bill—and that the Supreme Court declined to hear another case challenging the mine."
