Arizona’s Oak Flat Now Belongs to a Foreign Mining Company, But the Fight’s Not Over

For the past seven months, the fight to stop the largest loss of American climbing in history has been tied up in court—which, for climbers, was a good thing. Arizona’s Oak Flat, a sacred Apache site and one of the Southwest’s most prolific and historic climbing areas, has been set to change ownership from the Forest Service to Resolution Copper. The British-Australian mining project intends to demolish Oak Flat into a 1.8-mile-wide crater for copper extraction, which is projected to be worth $150 billion. In 2014, U.S. Senator John McCain snuck a mandate for the land transfer into a must-pass defense bill; for 12 years, Apache Stronghold, Access Fund, and other conservationist organizations have stalled this transfer. But after a series of legal defeats, including the Supreme Court’s Apache Stronghold decision last year, only one temporary restriction—a last-minute injunction by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals—kept Oak Flat in public hands.

“The injunction itself was quite the lifeline, last-minute breath for us,” said Jason Keith, a senior policy adviser for Access Fund, “but the cards have been stacked against us ever since the law was passed. When you’re fighting environmental analysis documents, you’re fighting procedure, not what’s right and wrong.”

On Friday, the ropes were finally cut. In a three-judge panel, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Access Fund’s challenge was unlikely to succeed on the legal merits—namely, that the Forest Service did not value the land appropriately in their Final Environmental Impact Statement—and dropped the injunction that held back the transfer.

The Forest Service wasted no time, handing the deed to Oak Flat’s 2,422 acres of land to Resolution Copper that same day.

For climbers and Indigenous rights activists, this action marked the single biggest setback in the fight to protect Oak Flat since Senator McCain’s midnight rider. “It’s somewhat unsurprising but nonetheless devastating news,” said Scott McDaniel, a Phoenix climber who organized a “Protect Oak Flat” demonstration outside of a Resolution Copper meeting two months ago. “Obviously the fight is not over, and there’s legal ground to move on yet … but yeah, it sucks.”

What happens now?

While the decision is disappointing to many people, including the climbing community, it has also mobilized new forms of resistance.

Yesterday, U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva introduced a bill in Congress to beef up protections for the lands just outside the exchange parcel’s boundaries. In 2021, Grijalva’s father and predecessor, U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva, teamed up with Senator Bernie Sanders to introduce the Save Oak Flat Act in Congress, but the bill failed to pass in either chamber for five years.

Now, the younger Representative Grijalva aims to protect the thousands of surrounding acres of land from new road development and toxic waste pipelines. “We cannot enable the destruction of Oak Flat by turning a blind eye to all of the disruptive mining infrastructure and toxic waste that will irreparably harm the surrounding lands,” wrote Representative Grijalva in a press release about the new bill. She also said the land “should never have been traded away.”

“It’s a relief that somebody in our government has a backbone,” said McDaniel, adding that word about Representative Grijalva’s bill has gotten around in the climbing community. Keith confirmed that the peripheral lands include climbing areas and that Access Fund will try to protect them from additional mining infrastructure.

Outside of legislative outlets, Resolution Copper still needs to receive a few legal permits before they can begin mining. “That’s the thing that’s in their way now,” Keith said, adding that Access Fund is still reviewing the legal options to protect the main area from destruction.

“There’s definitely a commitment on our part to leave no stone unturned to try to make sure we will be as effective as possible,” he said. For now, climbers should “stay tuned” for ways to get involved and protect this historic climbing area from destruction.

Some climbers have already started. This morning, the Central Arizona Climbers Association announced an Oak Flat showcase and raffle night, which will take place at Phoenix Rock Gym on April 2. “If you’ve heard or been told that the mine is a ‘done deal,’ we urge you to come out,” the group wrote in an Instagram post, “and discover why this fight is still far from over.”

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