In June, the US Forest Service published its 2,650-page final environmental impact statement for the Resolution Copper Project and Land Exchange, which involves transferring a 2,422-acre portion of Arizona’s Tonto National Forest, known as Oak Flat, to a copper mining company in exchange for land the company owns elsewhere. The project has been mired in controversy, protests, and litigation for over a decade (see “Apache Stronghold’s rooted resistance”), not only because of concerns about groundwater depletion and contamination, but also because Oak Flat is regarded as sacred by many San Carlos Apache people. The land transfer is scheduled to happen on August 19.
Over a 40-year lifespan, the mine is expected to create thousands of jobs and produce $150 billion worth of copper—enough to fulfill one-fourth of US demand for copper during that period. Because copper is malleable, durable, antibacterial, and highly conductive of heat and electricity, it’s thoroughly embedded in the infrastructure of our lives. It’s in our houses, supermarkets, electric vehicles, charging stations, trains, semiconductors, generators, MRI machines, data processing centers, wind turbines, solar panels, airplanes, churches, medical implants, office buildings, cell phones, and electric grids.
But the extraction of copper will obliterate Oak Flat. Where centuries-old oak trees now stand, where Apache girls dance the Sun Dance alongside the Gaan (spirit dancers) to experience the Creator’s presence, there will soon be only a crater—1,000 feet deep and almost two miles wide—and a tailings pile containing 1.5 billion tons of toxic waste. That’s an exorbitant price to pay for one-fourth of 40 years worth of copper.
