Tribal members vowed to continue fighting a massive copper mine in Arizona that they say will destroy sacred land after the Supreme Court refused to intervene.
The nation’s highest court in a split decision rejected a request from the nonprofit grassroots group Apache Stronghold to intervene. In doing so, the justices left a lower court’s ruling in place that allows the transfer of federal land in the Tonto National Forest to Resolution Copper, a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP, which plans to dig up copper there.
“We will never stop fighting — nothing will deter us from protecting Oak Flat from destruction,” Wendsler Nosie, head of Apache Stronghold and former chair of the San Carlos Apache, said in a statement. “While this decision is a heavy blow, our struggle is far from over. We urge Congress to take decisive action to stop this injustice while we press forward in the courts.”
Also on Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied a petition by the coal company, Arch Resources, involving a 2024 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found the company liable for benefits to certain coal miners disabled by pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease.
