Copper

The Biden Administration Is Preparing To Approve A Copper Mine On Oak Flat

April 5, 2023 Robin Silver, Popular Resistance. Resist! Biden administration, Copper, Mining, Oak Flats, Sacred sites

San Carlos Apache Reservation— San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler today sharply criticized reports that the Biden Administration is preparing to approve the proposed Resolution Mine that would destroy sacred Indigenous land located at Oak Flat on the Tonto National Forest about 70 miles east of Phoenix. “Obliterating Oak Flat for a copper mine will be a grave human rights violation against Indigenous people and an environmental catastrophe,” Chairman Rambler said. “Only China and shareholders of the two largest foreign mining companies in the world will benefit.” Resolution Copper Company wants to construct one of the largest copper mines in the world using a mining plan that will destroy Oak Flat, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property.

Apache Stronghold Granted New Hearing On Copper Mine

March 12, 2023 Apache Stronghold, Popular Resistance. Resist! Copper, Legal System, Oak Flat, Sacred sites

After a divided ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has agreed to rehear the case “en banc”—meaning in front of a full panel of eleven judges. Oral argument will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Courtroom Three of the Richard H. Chambers Courthouse, located at 125 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena, California 91105. In June of this year, a panel of three Ninth Circuit court judges ruled 2:1 against Apache Stronghold, with Judge Berzon dissenting and calling the ruling “illogical,” “incoherent,” “flawed,” and “absurd.” Now, a majority of the Ninth Circuit’s 29 active judges has voted to rehear the case and will convene a special panel of eleven judges to decide whether the law allows the government to destroy sacred sites.

Oak Flat’s Spiritual Convoy

October 14, 2021 Carina Dominguez, Indian Country Today. Resist! Copper, Indigenous Rights, Oak Flat

The Apache Stronghold Spiritual Convoy to the 9th Circuit Court is underway and made a stop in Tucson, Arizona on Wednesday. A Tohono O’odham blessing took place at the popular overlook on “A” mountain, followed by a gathering at Southside Presbyterian Church. The spiritual convoy is underway in hopes of stopping an international mining company, Resolution Copper, and its parent company, Rio Tinto, from extracting copper from the Oak Flat campground area, 60 miles east of Phoenix. Apache Stronghold has issued a litany of complaints, lawsuits and appeals attempting to stop the project from going through, after advocates said the late U.S. Sen. John McCain underhandedly slipped the measure into the National Defense Spending Bill in the 11th hour in December 2014.

Tribes Win Ruling Against Copper Mine On Ancestral Territory

August 14, 2019 Amanda Slee, Intercontinentalcry.org Resist! Copper, Indigenous Peoples, Mining

Phoenix – A federal judge has halted plans to begin digging an open-pit copper mine this month south of Tucson, citing an “inherently flawed” analysis of surface-use rights by the U.S. Forest Service. The Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains has for more than a decade been tied up in litigation over the permits needed to open what would be the third largest copper mine in the U.S. Construction had been slated to begin Thursday. Wednesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge James Soto of Arizona overturns a decision by the U.S. Forest Service in 2017 that granted Rosemont Copper Co. final approval to dig a large-scale pit mine in the Coronado National Forest.

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