US judge halts plan to transfer Oak Flat land for contested Arizona copper mine

A U.S. district judge on Friday temporarily halted the federal government’s plans to transfer land in eastern Arizona for a massive copper mining project amid protests by Native American groups that consider the area sacred.

Apache Stronghold and its supporters have been fighting for years to stop the transfer of Tonto National Forest land known as Oak Flat to Resolution Copper. Meanwhile, the company has touted the economic benefits for the region and says it’s worked with Native American tribes and others to shape the project.

U.S. District Judge Steven Logan said halting the land transfer would merely delay the production of copper and jobs and revenue to Arizona if it’s ultimately upheld. On the other hand, he said Apaches would lose legal access to an ancestral, sacred site if the transfer proceeded.

He said the balance of equities “tips sharply” in favor of Apache Stronghold. He granted an injunction that will be in place until the U.S. Supreme Court resolves an appeal to reconsider a decision from a panel of judges that refused to block the land transfer for the mine.

Logan, however, denied Apache Stronghold’s request to have the injunction extend beyond the Supreme Court’s resolution of the case.

“We are grateful the judge stopped this land grab in its tracks so that the Supreme Court has time to protect Oak Flat from destruction,” Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold said in a statement Friday.

A statement from Resolution Cooper said the ruling simply maintains the status quo and anticipates the U.S. Supreme Court will decide soon whether to take up the case.

The fight over Oak Flat dates back about 20 years, when legislation proposing the land transfer was first introduced. It failed repeatedly in Congress before being included in a must-pass national defense spending bill in 2014.

President Donald Trump in his first administration released an environmental review that would trigger the land transfer. Former President Joe Biden pulled it back so the federal government could consult further with tribes.

Then, the U.S. Forest Service in April announced it would forge ahead with the land transfer, prompting Apache Stronghold’s emergency appeal.

Apache Stronghold sued the U.S. government in 2021 under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to protect the place tribal members call Chi’chil Bildagoteel, an area dotted with ancient oak groves and traditional plants the Apaches consider essential to their religion.