A U.S. appeals court upheld a previous court’s decision and rejected a plea from Native Americans who claimed the property has religious and cultural significance, allowing the federal government to award Rio Tinto thousands of acres in Arizona for a copper mine.
The decision to defer to a 2014 decision by the U.S. Congress and then-President Barack Obama to grant the land to Rio for its Resolution Copper project as part of a complicated land swap deal was made by a 2-1 vote of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has its headquarters in San Francisco.
An appeal to the US Supreme Court was announced by Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit organization made up of people from the San Carlos Apache tribe and others.
The conflict in Arizona revolves on the federal property Oak Flat Campground, which some Apache believe to be the abode of gods and which is perched above a copper resource estimated to be worth more than 40 billion pounds. If a mine were to be constructed, it would obliterate that place of worship by forming a crater that was 1,000 feet (304 m) deep and 2 miles (3.2 km) broad.
More than $1 billion has already been spent on the project by Rio Tinto and minority partner BHP Group Plc, although no copper has been produced.
Although two judges acknowledged being sensitive to the religious concerns of the Apache people, they emphasized that their decision was specifically focused on the issues of whether the government is free to do as it pleases with its own land and whether the transfer of the land would interfere with Apaches’ ability to practice their religion.
“As we reach this conclusion, we do not rejoice. Rather, we recognize the deep ties that the Apache have to Oak Flat,” the court said it its 58-page ruling, as quoted by Reuters. “This dispute must be resolved as are most others in our pluralistic nation: through the political process.”
The judge who dissented claimed that believing the land exchange would not affect Apaches’ freedom to practice their religion was “absurd” and “illogical.”
The 2014 land transfer would be reversed by a measure that is now being discussed in the US Congress, however, its future is uncertain. Although he had limited powers to permanently postpone the land transaction, President Joe Biden took measures to halt it last year.
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