#Resolution Copper

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

The San Carlos Apache Tribe has taken its fight to the United Nations to save its traditional territory in Arizona from a massive copper mine. Chi’chil Bildagoteel, also known as Oak Flat, is home to one of the largest sources of copper in North America, and it is also the tribe’s most sacred site. San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler told the U.N. that the destruction of sacred sites is a “major human rights violation,” although he stopped short of describing the plans to mine Oak Flat in those specific terms.

“Oak Flat is a holy site, an area of irreplaceable beauty akin to a church, no different than the Wailing Wall, Temple Mount, Australia’s Juunkan Gorge or Mecca’s Kaaba,” Rambler said in an statement also called an “intervention” before the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII. “By violating the rights of Apaches to practice our religion and maintain our spiritual health and wellbeing, the United States is failing to comply with international standards incumbent on them as signatories of treaties and declarations that protect these fundamental human rights.”

Rambler urged the forum to call on the U.S. and other member states to protect sacred sites and asked forum leaders to visit the area to better understand its significance.

In 2014, Congress approved a defense bill that included a rider transferring the vast plateau of knobby rocks, desert vegetation and watery oases east of Phoenix to the owners of the Resolution Copper Mine. Apache leaders protested, along with nearby communities, conservationists and retired miners. In spite of all the objections, then-President Barack Obama signed the bill into law, moving the land transfer forward.

In 2021, the Biden administration halted the project, withdrawing the environmental impact statement and restarting the tribal consultation process. But the reprieve did not last: Federal officials have since moved ahead, arguing in court that the land swap should proceed despite Indigenous and environmental objections.

Last month, the 9th Circuit Court heard arguments on a case brought by Apache Stronghold, a coalition of Apaches and their allies. The case hinges on the question of whether destruction of the site violates the religious rights of the Apache. 

[virovac]

He harms the world in death...

There is still hope, of course. If enough public pressure can be built à la Standing Rock or the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, then it is possible that Rio Tinto could decide that the extraction is not worth the headache—a slim chance, though, given the copper deposits stand to be the largest remaining in North America. Resolution Copper’s proposal is just one of dozens of operations that the Trump administration’s Interior has rushed through before the Biden administration assumes control. From the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Wyoming to Oklahoma, tribal and public lands will be at the mercy of extractive industries for years to come.

[karadin]

While Republicans are giving away national parks to foreign corporations, President Obama creates 3 new national parks

Senators John McCain slipped through language in a funding bill giving national park lands and sacred native american sites in their home state to Resolution Mining Corp of Australia which will create a giant crater in lands protected by President Eisenhower in 1955.

Republicans are also calling for cutting funding to National Parks, giving them back to the ‘control’ of states (that can’t afford their upkeep) so they can be sold off piecemeal to corporate interests.

President Obama however, designating three new national monuments in areas "that demonstrate the wide range of historic and cultural values that make America's public lands so beloved," the White House announced Friday.

The new monuments, per a White House statement:

-- Berryessa Snow Mountain in California, a landscape containing rare biodiversity and an abundance of recreational opportunities;

-- Waco Mammoth in Texas, a significant palaeontological site featuring well-preserved remains of 24 Columbian Mammoths;

-- Basin and Range in Nevada, an iconic American landscape that includes rock art dating back 4,000 years and serves as an irreplaceable resource for archaeologists, historians, and ecologists.

The monuments involve more than one million acres of public land.

"With these new designations, President Obama will have used the Antiquities Act to establish or expand 19 national monuments," the White House said in a statement. "Altogether, he has protected more than 260 million acres of public lands and waters -- more than any other President."

[trapezoidarea-blog]

Hidden in recent defense bill was a package granting illegal land swap near Superior, Ariz., for the benefit of a foreign company Rio Tinto PLC who seek to mine copper.

Resolution Copper -- a Rio Tinto venture with BHP Billiton Ltd. -- would be given more than 2,000 acres of federal land in return for more than 5,000 acres of company land.

Conservation advocates and American Indian groups, particularly the San Carlos Apache Tribe, have for years been trying to block the swap, saying the mine would damage natural resources and culturally sensitive areas. A site called Apache Leap in the Tonto National Forest has been of particular concern.

Please take a moment to sign this and reblog if you don't mind. The Oak Flats Camp Ground and surrounding wilderness will be devastated if the bill goes through...It's really easy to sign and only takes a minute. 

[freespeechradionews]

New Post has been published on FSRN

New Post has been published on http://fsrn.org/2015/07/apache-activists-call-on-congress-to-reverse-deal-that-gave-sacred-land-to-mining-company/

Apache activists call on Congress to reverse deal that gave sacred land to mining company

After traveling across the country by caravan for the past few weeks, a group of about 100 Apaches and their supporters rallied in Washington, D.C. Wednesday. They’re drawing attention to move to reverse a land swap deal that was slipped into to the National Defense Authorization Act passed last December. The deal gave land in Arizona held sacred by the San Carlos Apache to a foreign-owned mining company that plans to develop an enormous open pit copper mine on the site. And critics say the legislative sleight of hand used to push the land swap through Congress threatens the protection of public lands all over the country. Melinda Tuhus reports.

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A few hundred people gathered on the west side of the Capitol building, some women dancing while men beat the drums. Each person on the caravan introduced himself or herself by tribal affiliation, most speaking in their native language as well as English.

They’re trying to save 2,400 acres of federal land known as Oak Flat that’s been used for centuries by the 15,000-member San Carlos Apache Tribe for sacred ceremonies and for gathering oaks, herbs and other foods. It was set aside by the Eisenhower administration in 1955 for the tribe’s use due to its cultural significance. But it’s not part of their reservation, so the land was vulnerable to a land swap proposed by the Resolution Copper mining company, which is a subsidiary of the Australian mining giant, Rio Tinto.

Arizona’s two U.S. senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, slipped a rider into the 2015 defense bill passed late last year in which the company gave 5,600 acres it owned in various parcels in Arizona to the federal government in exchange for the much smaller Oak Flat parcel.

“Resolution Copper’s own plan of operation says that that land will subside — two miles in diameter, 1,500 feet deep,” said tribal Chairman Terry Rambler, describing the fate of the land if the mine goes through. “What we consider sacred — whether it be a stream, a mountain or a hill or the holy water, whatever it may be — it’s all going to get swallowed up by that giant hole that’s going to be contaminated and it’s going to contaminate everything.”

Madada Powpicue is a member of the Yupic tribe from Nome, Alaska who joined the caravan in New York.

“Up in Alaska, we’ve been doing a lot of work around colonization and genocide and what it looks like to heal from that,” said Powpicue, who works to prevent youth suicide among her people. “Issues like suicide, substance use, domestic violence — those are all symptoms of colonialism and genocide. And so part of the issue is connectedness to land, subsistence rights. All of those are part of a healthy cultural, ethnic identity.”

According to Brian Howard, a legislative associate with the National Congress of American Indians, nearly 100 land bills were included as riders in the defense bill, and 8 of the 10 that directly affected native tribes were to their benefit. But he says the whole process lacked transparency and exemplified a breakdown in the legislative process, since no committees took them up and no hearings were held. And he says these kind of actions threaten all federal lands.

“A lot of reservation lands — our land base is smaller than our traditional home lands, so in many instances a lot of tribal sacred places are held in federal trust in federal parks and things,” Howard explained. “So I think that not only are we concerned about the issue of sacred places on these federal trust lands, but I believe the general public sincerely believes our national parks were created for a reason — to preserve the environment, for future generations to enjoy the beauty that is our landscape.”

Howard says all those lands could be threatened since Congressional action trumps executive steps.

McCain and Flake, both of whom have ties to Rio Tinto, say the mine will provide jobs and economic development to the state. But Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva has introduced a bill, HR 2811, that would repeal the land swap.

“It stepped all over basic laws, basic rights and more importantly, stepped on sovereignty, ignored sacred sites, when we should be embracing and protecting sacred sites like we protect churches, mosques, synagogues,” Grijalva said, noting that the rider enabling it violated established principles. “At the end of the day, because of you, because of native people across this country, we are going to win this fight.”

Grijalva says the issue is urgent, since Resolution Copper has already started work on the site.

President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, released a statement saying she was “profoundly disappointed” in the land swap, which she said “short-circuits the practice of pursuing meaningful government to government consultation with the 566 federally recognized tribes.” She urged Rio Tinto to forgo development in these sacred areas.

Tribal Chairman Rambler describes how their religion is tied to the land: “It has always been that way. The land, the dirt, the rocks, the trees, the birds, everything. They all have special places in our connection to Creator God.”

The next step is to persuade the Republican chair of a relevant committee, such as Natural Resources, to hold hearings on the bill. And according to Representative Grijalva, pressure is mounting on Congress to take action, including the submission of almost a million petitions collected by Avaaz, MoveOn and Credo calling for Congress to reverse the land swap.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

The Biden administration has put a pause on plans to erect a copper mine in Arizona on land known as Oak Flat, a site sacred to the San Carlos Apache and other Indigenous nations in the area.

The U.S. Forest Service has told a federal court it is not sure when an environmental impact statement could be approved, an action which would set off the land swap allowing Resolution Copper, a British-Australian company owned by Rio Tinto and BHP, to continue with the development of the mine. The statement had been promised for this spring, but the agency now doesn’t have a set timeline.

The Biden Administration and the Forest Service will be using this time to further consult with the San Carlos Apache and other tribes that have voiced opposition to the project.

Located about 40 miles from Phoenix, Oak Flat sits atop the third-largest deposit of copper ore in the world. The mine could produce up to 40 billion pounds of copper over 40 years and provide 1,500 jobs and millions in tax revenue and compensation.

[nativebiz]

San Carlos Apache Tribe claims small victory in dispute over sacred land

San Carlos Apache Tribe claims small victory in dispute over sacred land

ARIZONA – The San Carlos Apache Tribe has been protesting at the Oak Flat campground for nearly two weeks in an attempt to protect land they deem sacred.

During that time the tribe has occupied a portion of the grounds to bring attention to a land swap between the federal government and Resolution Copper, which plans to break ground on a $61.4 million mining operation in mid-2020.

Protest…

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Arizona Central:

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from moving ahead with a plan that would allow Resolution Copper to take ownership of Oak Flat and begin extracting copper on land considered sacred to Apache and other Native peoples.

Judge Steven P. Logan issued the order May 9, two days after hearing the case in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. He ruled that the government cannot publish a final environmental review of a land swap between Resolution and the U.S. Forest Service, which manages a campground at the site 60 miles east of Phoenix.

The order would remain in place until the day after the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or, if it accepts it, rules against grassroots group Apache Stronghold, which filed a lawsuit to stop the exchange in 2021 and sought the temporary delay in the Phoenix court.

In his decision, Logan wrote that it was "abundantly clear that the balance of equities 'tips sharply' in Plaintiff’s favor, and that even in the short term, they have established a likelihood of irreparable harm should the transfer proceed." If the government reissued the environmental impact statement, the land swap could occur within 60 days.

The judge also said Apache Stronghold presented serious questions on the merits of the case that warrant the Supreme Court’s careful scrutiny if it takes the case.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Arizona Republic:

A federal appeals court on Friday narrowly rejected a bid by the grassroots group Apache Stronghold to block a land swap that would allow copper mining at Oak Flat, one of the Apache peoples' most sacred sites.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court's ruling that the mine would not pose a substantial burden to First Amendment religious practice rights, setting up a likely showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision to deny a request for a preliminary injunction to block the land swap came on a 6-5 vote in a case that was argued nearly a year ago.

The suit, Apache Stronghold v. United States, was filed in January 2021 in federal district court. After losing that ruling, the Native rights group took the case to the appeals court, where a three-judge panel rejected Apache Stronghold's assertion that the mine would pose a substantial burden to their First Amendment religious practice rights.

The case went to the full circuit court last March. The ruling won't allow Resolution Copper to begin mining copper from Oak Flat, a step that requires the completion of the land swap. The company's plans could be further delayed by two other lawsuits related to a revised environmental impact statement, as well as the expected appeal of this ruling to the Supreme Court.

Resolution promises the mine, near Superior southeast of Phoenix, will bring jobs and economic growth to the once-active mining region, but opponents say it would obliterate a sacred site and desecrate places where Indigenous people have prayed and lived for centuries.

[rjzimmerman]

Bill Would Halt Federal Giveaway of Sacred Apache Land in Arizona

If you don’t remember about last year’s Oak Flats give-away, or don’t know about it, here’s a little background. I’ve taken it from an Op-Ed piece that appeared in the New York Times on May 29, 2015. (Here’s the link.)

Essentially, Congress has agreed to hand over a sacred Native American site to a foreign-owned company for what may be the first time in our nation’s history.

Background.

The campground at Oak Flat, Arizona lies at the core of a place considered sacred to the San Carlos Apache Tribe, where coming-of-age ceremonies, especially for girls, have been performed for many generations, along with traditional acorn gathering. The land is not tribal property, but it belongs to the public, under the administration of the U.S. Forest Service. In 1955, President Eisenhower decreed the area closed to mining because of its cultural and natural value. The ban was renewed in 1971 under the administration of President Nixon.

The Oak Flat area iis also home to a diverse array of wildlife. An endangered wild ocelot was found dead on Highway 60, very close to Oak Flat, several years ago, and there may be others in the area.

In December 2014, by a sneaky maneuver, Congress promised to transfer 2,400 acres of Forest Service land, including Oak Flat, to Resolution Copper Mining, a private, Australian-British mining concern. (Resolution Copper is owned by Rio Tinto, an Australian-Canadian mining company.) Resolution Copper, or Rio Tinto, will, in turn, transfer 5,300 acres of land it owns in the area to the U.S. Government. To do all time, a fine-print rider was added at the last minute by Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona to the must-pass military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. The tactic was successful only because, like most last-minute riders, it bypassed public scrutiny.

Rio Tinto affiliates have been McCain campaign contributors. Flake, before he made it to Congress, was a paid lobbyist for Rio Tinto Rössing Uranium (a huge uranium mine in Namibia).

Resolution Copper Mining will hollow out a vast chamber that, when it caves in, will leave a two-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep pit. The company itself has likened the result of its planned mining at Oak Flat to that of a nearby meteor crater.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s Proposed Bill

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has introduced a bill to stop the U.S. Congress from trading away Oak Flat. Grijalva's bill would repeal the mess created by McCain and Flake. Simple as that.

The San Carlos Apache and allies will take their fight to Washington, D.C., next month, when a cross-country caravan and sacred run from Arizona culminates with rallies and events in the nation's capital July 20–21.

The Tribe has a Facebook page dedicated to the issue and its efforts to unwind the legislative theft. Here’s the link to it.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Arizona Public Media:

Superior Mayor Mila Besich comes from a family of miners, so she knows it takes a long time to open a mine. But even she is getting frustrated by the years of reviews and court challenges to the proposed Resolution Copper mine.

“The Resolution Copper project is a very important piece of our community’s economic development,” Besich said recently. “Mining has always been a part of our economy and our community.”

The nearby Magma copper mine closed in 1996 and Resolution moved in in 2004, promising to bring thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in salary back to the area by exploiting what has been called one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper deposits.

Critics say it will bring more than that.

They say the mine will leave behind a 1,000-foot deep crater almost 2 miles across, dump millions of tons of toxic mine waste, threaten area water supplies, destroy land that is sacred to the Apache and ruin habitat relied on by hundreds of species, some endangered.

“What do we as the American public get, except for another toxic dump and loss of water when we are really struggling to get water?” asked Robin Silver, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, which has been one of the leading opponents of the mine.

Lawmakers, federal regulators, and courts have been grappling with those questions for years – and both sides agree that the debate is likely to continue for years to come.

Resolution has been looking to mine the site since 2004. But it was not until 10 years later that Congress approved a measure – attached by Sen. John McCain as a last-minute amendment to the must-pass defense funding bill – that let the government swap 2,422 acres of federally owned land in southeastern Arizona with Resolution, in exchange for 5,344 acres in the area.

That started seven years of environmental and archeological review by federal regulators who unveiled a final environmental impact statement that would have allowed the land transfer to go through.

That statement was released on Jan. 15, 2021, just days before President Donald Trump left office, and would have taken effect in March. But critics sued to block the plan they said was rushed through, and the new Biden administration ordered the impact statement pulled back for additional review and consultation with tribes. That review is still going on.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Conservation groups filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today in response to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s decades-long failure to limit pollution in Queen Creek.

Resolution Copper’s proposed mine would discharge copper and other pollutants into the creek. The mining operation would also destroy the Oak Flat area, an Indigenous sacred site east of Phoenix.

“Instead of doing its job to protect Queen Creek, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is allowing Resolution Copper Company to add more pollutants to an already polluted stream,” said Roger Featherstone, director of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition. “It is time for EPA to step in to protect a creek that is valued by so many Arizonans.”

Pollution limits are an important Clean Water Act tool to improve water quality. In 2002 the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality said Queen Creek failed to meet federal water-quality standards because of dissolved copper; later it added lead and selenium to the list. But despite the creek’s formal listing as impaired, there are no pollution limits because the state has failed to finalize these standards.

The Clean Water Act requires states to identify polluted waters and limit pollution dumped into those waters. Impairment designation triggers a state agency’s duty to measure pollutants and identify potential reductions to ensure the water is safe for people, plants and animals. The EPA is required to step in if states fail to implement pollution standards for impaired waters.

[kikonews]

Resolution Copper Project Comment Period Extended

The Tonto National Forest has extended the public scoping period for the proposed Resolution Copper mine and associated land exchange Environmental Impact Statement.

An additional public scoping meeting will be held on Thursday, June 9 at the Central Arizona College San Tan Campus. The meeting will run from 5 to 8:pm, with the presentation beginning at 5:30.

The public comment period has been extended through July 18. Comments may be submitted by mail, email, fax, or by phone.

The website is www.resolutionmineeis.us.

Written comments may be sent to: Resolution EIS Comments, P.O. Box 3446, Phoenix 85067. Email: Comments@resolutionmineeis.us . Fax or voicemail: 1-866-546-5718.

[kikonews]

High Country News 2/2/16