Save Oak Flat from Foreign Mining Act

Key Points

• The bill repeals a 2014 law that required the Forest Service to hand over about 2,422 acres of public land called Oak Flat in Arizona's Tonto National Forest to a foreign-owned mining company. It would permanently withdraw the land from any future mining, leasing, or private ownership.
• The mining company, Resolution Copper, is a joint venture between two foreign corporations, Rio Tinto (55%) and BHP (45%). The bill argues the copper extracted would mostly be exported to China rather than benefiting American consumers or national security.
• Oak Flat is a sacred site for Native American tribes who were forcibly removed from the land by the U.S. Army in the 1880s. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Traditional Cultural Property of Chi'chil Bi5dagoteel Historic District.
• The proposed mine would consume over 250 billion gallons of groundwater over 40 years, enough water to support 180,000 people annually, and create a crater two miles wide and over 1,000 feet deep. Arizona's State Land Department has formally objected to the mine's water impacts.
• The bill frames the land exchange as a national security risk, noting that Rio Tinto's largest shareholder is Chinalco, a company wholly owned by the Chinese government, and that both Rio Tinto and BHP generate the majority of their revenue from mineral exports to China.