HECHO Condemns Transfer of Public Lands to a Foreign Company to Advance a Mining Project that Threatens a Sacred Site and Arizona’s Water Supply
The U.S. Forest Service has officially announced its intention to publish the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed Resolution Copper mine. This action initiates a 60-day period during which the U.S. government will transfer Oak Flat, located in the Tonto National Forest just 60 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona, to Resolution Copper, a joint venture of the world’s two largest foreign mining entities, BHP and Rio Tinto. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is Rio Tinto’s largest shareholder.
“Handing over Oak Flat to a Chinese-backed company isn’t just bad policy—it’s a national security risk. This mine would drain Arizona’s groundwater, repeating the same mistakes we saw with Saudi companies extracting water to grow alfalfa for export. America’s public lands and water should never be up for grabs by foreign governments,” said Camilla Simon, Executive Director of HECHO.
HECHO acknowledges the importance of natural resource extraction as part of the multiple uses of public lands and is not opposed to mining. However, some public lands are simply too valuable to sacrifice, and Oak Flat is one of them. This mine doesn’t benefit the American people. The extracted copper at Oak Flat will be processed in China to be sold back to Americans.
The development of this mine at Oak Flat, an area listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP), will destroy a sacred site for Indigenous communities, creating a crater that is 1.8 miles wide and at least 1,000 feet deep, and pollute vital water resources, and negatively impact access to and enjoyment of a well-known recreational area in the Arizona desert.
“Tribal sovereignty is nonnegotiable — and so are the religious and cultural rights of the San Carlos Apache and other Indigenous communities,” said Daisy Purdy, Vice President at National Wildlife Federation. “Developing a copper mine at Chi’chil Biłdagoteel is unacceptable. The administration must reverse course and recommit to respecting Tribal sovereignty and trust responsibilities, honoring Treaty rights, engaging in Free Prior and Informed Consent, and ensuring responsible stewardship of Indigenous cultural and religious sites.”
“I worked in the industry for more than 20 years and am deeply concerned about block cave mining at Oak Flat. This mine will cause irreparable damage, as documented in the FEIS, the BLM’s 2022 technical report, and other studies,” warned Henry Muñoz, retired miner, a member of HECHO’s Hispanic Conservation Leadership Council and resident of Superior, AZ. “This mine will leave behind approximately 1.5 billion tons of toxic waste for eternity, resulting in taxpayers being responsible for cleaning up this mess. We cannot afford to let that happen on American soil.”
Rio Tinto, which co-owns Resolution Copper, has a long history of environmental disasters and human rights violations in its mining operations worldwide.
Despite promises of jobs and growth, the reality is far different. The mine would be located 7,000 feet below Oak Flat. At this depth, temperatures are over 170 degrees and humans cannot survive down there. Instead, the mine will have to be highly automated, requiring very few, if any, local workers.
To learn more, read: Resolution Copper’s Mine at Oak Flat: Myths vs. Facts.