A divided federal appeals court Friday narrowly rejected a bid to halt a land swap that will allow the federal government to transfer thousands of acres of public land in Arizona to a mining company — a blow to tribal members and a nonprofit that have fought to protect an Apache holy site from being turned into one of the nation’s largest copper mines.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 6 to 5 ruling affirmed a lower court’s denial of Apache Stronghold’s request for a preliminary injunction against the government’s transfer of Oak Flat — federal land within the Tonto National Forest — to Resolution Copper, a joint venture of Anglo-Australian firms Rio Tinto and BHP. Apache Stronghold is a nonprofit that includes members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
The en banc court in a split decision reaffirmed its support for a deal that was part of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act — and championed by the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — to trade Oak Flat for other land in Arizona.
While the mine’s developer welcomed the ruling, Apache Stronghold vowed in a statement to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court and warned the mine would transform Oak Flat, known in Apache as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, into a 2-mile-wide and 1,100-foot-deep crater.
