A federal judge delivered an injunction on Friday which delays the transfer of Oak Flat, an indigenous religious site in Arizona, to a multinational company which would make it one of the largest copper Mines in the world.
More than a week ago, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in this case, allowing an order of the lower court to present itself which approved the transfer. The judge of the district court of Phoenix called for 60 days to allow the defenders of OAK Flat to examine a future declaration of environmental impact of the American forest service.
The delay motions come from the tribe of San Carlos Apache and a coalition of organizations such as the Center for Biological Diversity, a local chapter of the Sierra Club and the inter-tribal association of Arizona.
The fight against the future of Oak Flat has been going on for a decade. The last environmental review was published during the first Trump administration, but then stopped during the Biden administration. In April, Trump’s current administration said that it would reissue its environmental examination, expected on June 16.
The examination is necessary for the transfer of the field to Resolution Copper, a Rio Tinto and BHP project, multinational mining companies.
There was a problem in access to this exam before its publication. According to Marc Fink, lawyer for the center of biological diversity, it is usual to see such documents in a legal process.
This was not the case with Oak Flat.
“During my 30 years, I have never seen it happening,” he said.
The restraint of the journal is considered by observers as a sign that the Trump administration wants to accelerate the mine, which would sit directly at the top of the sacred sites and would exploit a thousand feet inside the earth.
The massive copper mine which could test the limits of religious freedom
The land in question is around 40 miles east of Phoenix in the Tonto National Forest. The Apaches consider him as their land, on the basis of the 1852 treaty signed between the nation and the American government, as the result of the American-Mexican war a few years earlier.
In the midst of a current trade war between the United States and China, as the Trump’s prices indicate, the supporters of Oak Flat gleave their heads in contradictory national security interests. In a press release from the San Carlos Apache tribe, President Terry Rambler, said: “Copper resolution is a major threat to US national security given the significant financial influence of China on the BHP and the Rio Tinto.”
The United States has only two copper foundries – in Utah and Arizona – and both are with total capacity. Critics assume that the copper resolution will probably send raw materials in China, where the largest copper refineries in the world exist.
The question of whether the profit margin is acceptable for copper resolution is also a question for mining companies. A feasibility study, which examines if the costs will be reduced for the net gain of profits, has not yet been conducted according to the resolution of copper and can take years. However, if companies identify expenses to be too expensive, it is unlikely that they send the title to Apache Homeland under the forest service.
The tribal organization Apache Stronghold has also filed a separate injunction before the same Arizona court; It was their trial that the Supreme Court refused to hear.
Luke Goodrich, vice-president of Becket, a legal institute of religious rights which represented Apache Strongholh, said that the struggle was far from over.
“The Apaches will never stop defending Oak Flat,” he said. “And we continue to press all the possible opportunities before the courts, the congress and with the president to ensure that this tragic destruction never takes place.”
Oak Flat is crowned for the west of the Apache. The Trump administration intends to approve a plan to destroy it.
