Trump administration completes land exchange for copper mine, over Apache tribe’s objections

The Trump administration officially completed a land exchange with a copper mining firm, brushing aside objections from the Western Apache that the mining would destroy a sacred site in Arizona.

Roughly 2,500 acres of land were turned over to Resolution Copper LLC, which is giving the U.S. 5,000 acres of similarly appraised land — without the value of the copper — in the exchange.

Congress approved the exchange in a 2014 law, but it has been delayed by political hiccups and lawsuits.

Indeed, hours before the Agriculture Department announced the final transfer, members of the Western Apache rushed to the Supreme Court asking for a last-minute stay.

They say they’ve practiced their religion at Oak Flat, or Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, from “time immemorial.” Oak Flat is part of the transfer.

The Apache members said putting the project on hold wouldn’t hurt the government, but without the delay, the Apaches lose everything.

“The United States Government has a tragic history of destroying Apache lives and lands for the sake of mining interests. The Apaches simply ask that the land not be transferred beyond federal control and destroyed before the courts (including this Court) resolve their claims,” the challengers said in their petition to the high court.

The emergency request came just three days after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined the tribe’s request, saying the government seems to have followed the law.

“We nonetheless recognize that this land transfer will fundamentally alter the nature of the land, including destruction of those sites sacred to the tribe,” wrote Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., a George W. Bush appointee. “Despite those grave harms to Native religious practice, Congress has chosen to transfer this land, and plaintiffs have not raised any viable challenges to that decision.”

The Supreme Court didn’t act immediately — but the Trump administration did.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the completion of the land exchange in the afternoon.

“Completing this land exchange unlocks a major domestic source of copper, essential for defense, grid modernization, and next-generation energy, and positions the nation to secure its future by expanding mineral production and unleashing America’s full resource potential,” she said.

The land, about 60 miles east of Phoenix, contains nearly 2 billion metric tons of copper.

The Agriculture Department said it expects the mine to create nearly 1,500 jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to the federal, state and local governments.

On Jan. 15, 2021, in the waning days of the first Trump administration, the government attempted to set the wheels turning to complete the transfer. The Biden administration withdrew that plan in March 2021, though legal challenges proceeded through the courts.

The case had even reached the justices before, with the high court twice declining to intervene.