There is an opportunity to honor and protect a deeply sacred place for the native San Carlos Apache people of Arizona while also protecting an area 2-miles in diameter from a mining project that will do more harm than good for all people in the region. The Resolution Copper Project, just 40 miles east of Phoenix, would exhaust 250 billion gallons of water from an already strained Arizona water supply, and permanently damage the area known as Oak Flat or Chi’chil Bildagoteel by the Indigenous community. The potential for the project itself comes about after a dozen failed attempts to push a land exchange between Resolution Copper and the Federal Government finally succeeded as a last-minute addition to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act.

Advocates of the Resolution Copper Project tout job creation and increased copper production to meet the growing demand for metal in the U.S. The truth is that jobs created by the mine would be dangerous, low-wage, and unstable. The economic stimulation brought by the mine would dissipate after the extraction of the copper ore is complete and bring about a resulting financial and environmental crisis in the region. Additionally, the Resolution Mining Project would be carried out by foreign corporations that have not committed to keeping the copper ore from the mine in the U.S. and are expected to ship it abroad for refinement. In June of 2022, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a Review of Hydrology Aspects of the Resolution Copper Project Environmental Impact Statement which further exposed the water-related concerns around the mining project.

Oak Flat must be saved from being destroyed by the Resolution Copper Project. The San Carlos Apache people have legitimate spiritual and religious claims to the area. The proposed Resolution Copper project would not come close to justifying its negative impact on the region with the short-lived economic benefits that it would bring to the surrounding area.