Indigenous group Apache Stronghold said Rio Tinto’s proposed Arizona copper mine violates their religious rights. Image source: Wendy Kenin, via Flickr.
Indigenous group Apache Stronghold said it will take its case against a proposed copper mine in Oak Flat, Arizona, to the US Supreme Court.
Oak Flat, known as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel in Apache, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and currently protected from mining.
Western Apaches and other Native American peoples consider the land sacred and have held religious ceremonies there for generations.
US Congress authorised Oak Flat to be transferred to Resolution Copper, owned by British-Australian mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP, as part of a defence bill in 2014.
Resolution Copper claims the mine would supply more than a quarter of US demand for copper needed for federal plans to fight climate change.
A company spokesperson said the mine was planned in collaboration with Native American communities, among others, and they would continue to engage with those groups.
In 2021, Apache Stronghold filed its lawsuit with the federal court to stop the land transfer on the grounds it violated their First Amendment religious rights guarantees, which was rejected.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently refused to review the case in April.
Apache Stronghold’s representative lawyer Luke Goodrich said, “Blasting the central sacred sit of Western Apaches to oblivion is a great violation of religious liberty.”
“We will ask the Supreme Court to take this case, protect Oak Flat, and ensure that Indigenous people receive the same protection for religious freedom that all other faith groups enjoy.”
Goodrich said the Supreme Court has taken 25 religious liberty cases since 2011 and ruled in favour in 24 of those arguments.
Majority owner Rio Tinto has previously been accused of violating Indigenous rights after the corporation destroyed a 46,000-year-old culturally significant site at Juukan Gorge, Western Australia.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear Apache Stronghold’s appeal by 12 August.
