In her first pitch as a new member of congress, Rep. Adelita Grijalva has introduced legislation that aims to protect national forest land from copper mining in Arizona.
The Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act looks to undo legislation that was passed by Congress in 2014, the National Defense Authorization Act provision that transferred 2,422 acres of Tonto National Forest land to Rio Tinto’s Resolution Copper Mining for copper extraction.
“We want to stop any of the mining and some of the promises and claims that Resolution Copper have made about what they’re going to be able to do to protect Oak Flat,” Grijalva said.
On its website the mining company disputes claims that Oak Flat would be destroyed by the mine and says it is working with affected parties and tribes to understand the significance of the site.
However Grijalva argues that the mine will have devastating impacts to the water and land.
“This protects this site that has really profound religious, cultural, historical, environmental importance to tribal nations in Arizona [and] across the country,” she said.
The bill points out that Resolution Copper is a joint venture of Rio Tinto and BHP, two foreign corporations that want to extract copper for export to China. Grijalva express her views that it was hypocritical for House members to take a hard stance against China while the overall push from the Trump Administration is to Unleash American Energy and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign - especially Chinese - supply chains for rare and critical minerals.
“I think that is what might resonate some bipartisan support on the other side of the aisle, because clearly talking about the environmental impacts or the religious and cultural significance hasn’t been swaying the other side,” she said.
Grijalva’s father, the late Congressman Raul Grijalva, proposed several iterations of the bill in years past and was a strong advocate for the indigenous community.
“There are generational and spiritual consequences to the damage likely to occur at Oak Flat,” he wrote in a 2020 Op-Ed for the Arizona Republic.
Grijalva says her version acknowledges the coalition of nonprofits that have unified in rallying against mining in the area as well as court intervention.
“He introduced the first piece of legislation in [2015] and I think that it’s important to note since then, [there have] been legal interventions from a lot of organizations that are supportive of this, that have stalled, but eventually it’s going to need federal intervention for us to ensure and protect Oak Flat,” she said.
In October, the Supreme Court decided that it would not reconsider the Apache Stronghold’s effort to preserve sacred lands from Resolution Copper however, three more lawsuits are still pending in the 9th U. S. Circuit with oral arguments set to begin next year.
Grijalva hopes that this bill will draw more attention to the issue.
