President Donald Trump on Monday ordered federal agencies to advance a 211-mile-long mining road in Alaska to tap into mineral deposits, a project that’s been at the center of a decadeslong regulatory and legal fight.
“It’s a very, very big deal from the standpoint of minerals and energy,” said Trump.
Standing next to Trump in the Oval Office, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said construction on the gravel road will begin next spring and that the Department of Defense is poised to announce funding for a company angling to produce minerals from the region. The road will be jointly owned by the state, federal government and Native Alaskan villages, he said.
The road was halted under the Biden administration last year, with officials at the time concluding that all proposed routes to the Ambler mining district would result in irreparable harm to permafrost and wildlife, including caribou, which many local people rely on for food.
But Burgum said the order was being reversed, and will tap into some of the world’s richest mineral sources, including copper, and warned that China has a chokehold on mining. The secretary said Trump is tapping into a special 1980s-era authority set aside for presidents to allow Alaska to build the road.
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump approved an appeal from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, or AIDEA, and directed agencies — including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Army Corps of Engineers — to “promptly” approve permits for the project.
The fact sheet also states that Trilogy Metals will also receive $35.6 million to explore the Ambler mining district, and the U.S. government will become a 10 percent shareholder in the company.
“This opens up a wealth of resources,” said Burgum. “The Department of War is making an investment in Trilogy Minerals, one of the companies that has mining claims in this area.”
The project is slated to move forward in three phases, Burgum said, starting with a pilot phase in which a single-lane gravel road will be built and later expanded.
The decision is sure to draw legal fights. Environmental groups and tribes in Alaska have fought the Ambler Road, which would cross federally managed land, including the Brooks Range and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to reach mineral-rich areas.
Burgum during an interview on Friday with Alaska’s News Source’s “In-Depth Alaska” indicated the road was advancing, and said discussions were ongoing about subsistence farming. He also argued that the administration is legally required to see the road advance. Alaska’s congressional delegation has also voiced support for the project.
Republicans failed to include language to advance the road in the GOP megabill, but House lawmakers recently approved a resolution that would scrap a land management plan that halted the road. That language is now awaiting action in the Senate.
Burgum said Monday’s development aligned with an executive order that Trump signed in January, which placed a temporary pause on all actions tied to the Biden administration’s decisions, including on Ambler, and raised the possibility of reinstating a Trump-era record of decision in 2020 approving the project.
Burgum also again asserted on Monday that approving the road is a matter of upholding Alaska’s rights and that when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed in the 1980s, the state was promised road access.
