copper

President Trump this week threw his full support behind a massive project to turn a sacred Apache site outside Phoenix into one of the world’s largest copper mines, meeting with mining executives at the White House and ridiculing a recent court decision that temporarily halted the transfer of federal lands to their companies.

Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met in the White House on Tuesday with several executives from Rio Tinto and BHP, the two multinational mining companies behind the planned Resolution Copper mine. As proposed, the mine would turn Oak Flat — a long-preserved site of rocky outcroppings and desert waterways on the edge of the Tonto National Forest — into a nearly two-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep industrial crater.

Trump also posted about the project on his Truth Social site, calling the three-judge U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that blocked the transfer a “Radical Left Court” and saying it was “sad” that “Radical Left Activists” could stall such a project.

“3,800 Jobs are affected, and our Country, quite simply, needs Copper — AND NOW!” Trump wrote.

He also wrote, without evidence, that those fighting the mine are “Anti-American” and working on behalf of “other Copper competitive Countries.”

The San Carlos Apache Tribe, which is among the plaintiffs suing to block the mine, called the court’s decision a “last minute victory” in its ongoing battle to save the land.

“The Apache people will never stop fighting for Chí’chil Biłdagoteel,” tribe Chairman Terry Rambler said in a statement, using the traditional Apache name for Oak Flat. “We thank the court for stopping this horrific land exchange and allowing us to argue the merits of our pending lawsuit in court.”

Trump’s decision to directly weigh in further elevates the already large profile of a monumental legal battle. It has aligned environmental activists and religious liberty proponents, and has major implications for the nation’s ability to meet its rapidly growing demand for copper, which is an essential element in telecommunications networks, electric vehicles and other growing technologies.

Oak Flat was federally protected land for decades. Members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe describe it as sacred land home to spiritual guardians akin to angels, and say it has been used for coming-of-age and other tribal ceremonies for generations.

In 2004, prospectors discovered that one of the world’s largest copper ore deposits, estimated to hold enough copper to supply up to a quarter of U.S. demand, sat somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 feet below the surface.

The battle to extract the deposit has raged ever since, but particularly since 2014, when former Arizona Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake inserted language mandating the land transfer into a last-minute defense appropriations bill.

A lawsuit brought by the group Apache Stronghold and led by Apache elder Wendsler Nosie Sr. resulted in a split 9th Circuit ruling against the Apache and in favor of the mining companies in March 2024.

In May, the Supreme Court declined to hear an Apache appeal of that decision, clearing the way for the U.S. Forest Service to issue a final environmental impact report and hear a last round of public comment before handing the land over to Resolution Copper.

The decision marked a major loss to the mine opponents, but it did not end other lawsuits filed to stop it — including one filed by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and another by a group called the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition.

On Aug. 15, a district court judge in Arizona issued an order clearing the way for the land transfer to move forward on Tuesday.

The groups appealed, and the three-judge 9th Circuit panel put the district court decision on hold Monday, pending its own hearing of arguments over the transfer — one of which is that the federal government bypassed a required step in the environmental review process.

The panel — composed of two Clinton appointees and one Trump appointee — said it was not taking a position on the merits of those arguments, and would “expedite” the case, with all briefs due by Oct. 14.

The court’s reprieve, if only temporary, was cheered by Apache groups and other organizations whose members use the Oak Flat land for rock climbing and other recreation. Some also spoke out against Trump’s remarks, calling them anti-American.

Rambler, the San Carlos tribe chairman, said the mine’s opponents “are working to save the U.S. from making a disastrous decision that would give up American resources to foreign interests,” and that Trump had been “misinformed” to think otherwise by the mine’s supporters.

Rambler said BHP and Rio Tinto are foreign companies with ties to Chinese state-owned companies, and will be exporting the copper taken from Oak Flat — “likely to China.”

Rambler said he looks forward “to sitting down with the administration and providing factual information to protect American assets.”

Nosie, in a statement provided to the The Times, also accused Trump of siding with foreign interests over those of indigenous Americans.

“Our nation cannot survive if we sacrifice what is sacred in pursuit of temporary profits,” he said.

Wendsler Nosie Sr., a longtime opponent of the proposed Resolution Copper mine, gathers with other opponents to the mine at Oak Flat in 2023.

(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)

He said the Apache people are grateful for all of the support they have received from people of all political stripes and religious backgrounds, who he said have recognized the fight for what it is — a “moral one.”

“If we destroy our sacred land and poison our environment, we are betraying our children and grandchildren and hurting ourselves,” he said. “The future of the entire human race is at stake.”

A Resolution Copper spokesperson said they are confident the 9th Circuit will “ultimately affirm” the district court’s “well-reasoned” ruling in favor of the land transfer.

“Over the past 11 years, the Resolution Copper project has undergone a rigorous, independent review under the National Environmental Policy Act, led by the U.S. Forest Service. This review has included extensive consultation with numerous Native American Tribes with ancestral ties to this land, local communities, civil society organizations, and a dozen federal, state, and county agencies,” the spokesperson said. “The collaborative process has directly led to major changes to the mining plan to preserve and reduce potential impacts on Tribal, social, environmental, and cultural interests.”

The spokesperson said the project has other local support and “the potential to become one of America’s biggest copper mines, contributing $1 billion annually to Arizona’s economy and creating thousands of local jobs in a region where mining has played an important role for more than a century.”

Tuesday’s meeting at the White House included Trump and Burgum, as well as current Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm, incoming Rio Tinto chief executive Simon Trott and BHP chief executive Mike Henry, as well as other White House officials.

The Resolution Copper spokesperson said the discussion centered on “the mining industry’s capacity to deliver long-term domestic supplies of copper and other critical minerals” from the Oak Flat deposit.

More than 100 people had been involved in the search for workers at the El Teniente copper mine, the world’s largest underground mine.

All five workers trapped at a copper mine in Chile have been found dead, according to a regional prosecutor, after rescue teams cleared more than 24 metres (78 feet) of underground passages that collapsed in a strong earthquake last week.

Prosecutor Aquiles Cubillo of the O’Higgins region said on Sunday that the body of the fifth trapped worker had been found at the El Teniente copper mine.

More than 100 people had been involved in the search for workers at the El Teniente copper mine, the world’s largest underground mine, in Rancagua, about 100km (62 miles) south of Santiago.

“We deeply regret this outcome,” Cubillos said.

The latest death brings the total toll from the accident to six, including one person who died at the time of the incident on Thursday evening.

Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco discovered the first trapped worker on Saturday and another three on Sunday. It has not yet commented on the final worker.

The miners had been working at a depth of more than 900 metres when the collapse happened, killing one colleague and halting operations at the site. Their exact location had been pinpointed with specialised equipment.

Minister for Mining Aurora Williams announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine on Saturday.

The mine began operating in the early 1900s and boasts more than 4,500km (some 2,800 miles) of underground tunnels.

Last year, El Teniente produced 356,000 tonnes of copper – nearly 7 percent of the total for Chile.

The cave-in happened after a “seismic event” on Thursday afternoon, of which the origin – natural or caused by drilling – was not yet known, the authorities said on Saturday. The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.2.

“It is one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, that the El Teniente deposit has experienced in decades,” Andres Music, the mine’s general manager, said in a statement.

The search team included several of the rescuers who participated in successfully surfacing 33 miners trapped in a mine for more than two months in the Atacama Desert in 2010, attracting a whirlwind of global media attention.

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, responsible for nearly a quarter of global supply, with about 5.3 million tonnes in 2024.

Its mining industry is one of the safest on the planet, with a death rate of 0.02 percent last year, according to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.

It also lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that surrounds the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

At least 100 people are involved in search operations at the world’s largest underground copper mine.

Rescue teams in Chile are searching for five miners trapped after a partial collapse triggered by a tremor killed one colleague and halted operations at the world’s largest underground copper mine.

At least 100 people were involved in the perilous search effort, said Andres Music, general manager of El Teniente mine in Rancagua, some 100km (62 miles) south of Santiago.

“So far, we have not been able to communicate with them. The tunnels are closed, they are collapsed,” he told reporters on Friday.

The miners had been working at a depth of more than 900 metres when the collapse happened. Their exact location has been pinpointed with specialised equipment.

“We will do everything that is humanly possible to rescue the five trapped workers,” Maximo Pacheco, the president of Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco, told a news conference on Friday afternoon.

“All of our experience, all of our knowledge, all of our energy and all of our strength are dedicated to this cause and to seeing this through,” he added.

Codelco cancelled a presentation of its first-half financial results, set for Friday morning, due to the rescue efforts.

Temporary closure

Mining minister Aurora Williams earlier announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine, which began operating in the early 1900s and boasts more than 4,500km (some 2,800 miles) of underground tunnels.

Last year, El Teniente produced 356,000 tonnes of copper – nearly 7 percent of the total for Chile.

The cave-in happened after a “seismic event” on Thursday afternoon, of which the origin – natural or caused by drilling – is not yet known, according to authorities. The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.2.

“It is one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, that the El Teniente deposit has experienced in decades,” said Music, adding: “We are making every effort to try to rescue these five miners.”

“The next 48 hours are crucial,” the manager said.

The search team included several of the rescuers who participated in successfully surfacing 33 miners trapped in a mine for more than two months in the Atacama Desert in 2010, attracting a whirlwind of global media attention.

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, responsible for nearly a quarter of global supply with about 5.3 million tonnes in 2024. Its mining industry is one of the safest on the planet, with a death rate of 0.02 percent last year, according to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.

It also lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that surrounds the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Published on
09/07/2025 – 10:23 GMT+2

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US copper prices spiked after US President Donald Trump said he planned to place a 50% tariff on imports of the metal on Tuesday.

Copper futures traded in New York jumped around 13% to $5.69 a pound, a record closing-price, dramatically outpacing gains on copper futures traded in London.

As of around 3.30am EDT on Wednesday, the New York price had dropped to around $5.59, although it remained at a much higher level than before Trump’s announcement.

The president commented on the tariff during a televised cabinet meeting, without giving great detail, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration would formalise the decision in the coming days. Lutnick suggested that the duty would come into effect around the end of this month, or in early August.

The development also comes as Trump is nearing his 1 August deadline, before which he has vowed to slap “so-called” reciprocal duties on countries running a trade surplus with the US.

The president has been sending out letters to trading partners, notifying them of tariff rates, and he said that seven more country-specific rates would be announced on Wednesday. So far, the US has reached trade agreements with the UK, China, and Vietnam.

Copper is used in a wide variety of products, meaning the tariff will affect electronics, construction, and industrial machinery, likely to push up inflation across the board.

This comes as Trump is putting pressure on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Powell said last week that the Fed would have eased monetary policy by now if not for the new US tariffs, which are sowing uncertainty and risking economic stability.

According to the US Geological Survey, the US imported about 810,000 metric tons of refined copper last year, about half of what it consumed. Chile is the most significant exporter to the US, followed by Canada.

A 50% tariff on the metal would bring the rate in line with the duties already placed on aluminium and steel, which became effective in June.

Although the exact rate was undisclosed, the copper duty itself was not unexpected, as Trump in February ordered a Section 232 investigation into imports of the metal. The probe intends to determine whether Trump has the right to impose the tariffs on national-security grounds.

Trump also said on Tuesday that a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals was coming “very soon”, but he added that he would give the industry at least a year to adjust.

The US imports roughly half of its copper needs each year, which is used in construction, transportation and electronics.

United States President Donald Trump has said he will announce a 50 percent tariff on copper, hoping to boost domestic production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and many consumer goods.

Trump told reporters at a White House cabinet meeting that he planned to make the copper tariff announcement later in the day, but did not say when the tariff would take effect.

“I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make 50 percent,” Trump said.

US Comex copper futures jumped more than 12 percent to a record high after Trump announced the planned tariff, which came earlier than the industry had expected, with the rate steeper.

After Trump spoke, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in an interview on CNBC that the tariff would likely be put in place by the end of July or August 1. He said Trump would post details on his Truth Social media account sometime on Tuesday.

In February, the administration announced a so-called Section 232 investigation into US imports of the red metal. Such an investigation allows the US Department of Commerce to analyse the impact of an import on national security. The deadline for the investigation to conclude was November, but Lutnick said the review was already complete.

“The idea is to bring copper home, bring copper production home, bring the ability to make copper, which is key to the industrial sector, back home to America,” Lutnick said.

The National Mining Association declined to comment, saying it preferred to wait until details were released. The American Critical Minerals Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Copper is used in construction, transportation, electronics and many other industries. The US imports roughly half of its copper needs each year.

Copper supplies

Major copper mining projects across the US have faced strong opposition in recent years due to a variety of reasons, including Rio Tinto and BHP’s Resolution Copper project in Arizona and Northern Dynasty Minerals’s Pebble Mine project in Alaska.

Shares of the world’s largest copper producer, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan, shot up nearly 5 percent in Tuesday afternoon trading. The company, which produced 1.26 billion pounds of copper in the US last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Freeport, which would benefit from US copper tariffs but worries that the duties would hurt the global economy, has advised Trump to focus on boosting US copper production.

Countries set to be most affected by any new US copper tariff would be Chile, Canada and Mexico, which were the top suppliers to the US of refined copper, copper alloys and copper products in 2024, according to US Census Bureau data.

Chile, Canada and Peru, three of the largest copper suppliers to the US, have told the Trump administration that imports from their countries do not threaten US interests and should not face tariffs. All three have free trade deals with the US.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Economy, Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Canada’s Department of Finance did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chile’s Mining Ministry and Codelco, the country’s leading copper miner, declined to comment.

A 50 percent tariff on copper imports would affect US companies that use the metal because the country is years away from meeting its needs, said Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

“The US has imported a whole year of demand over the past six months, so the local storage levels are ample,” Hansen said. “I see a correction in copper prices following the initial jump.”

The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an Apache religious challenge to the construction of a massive copper mine on Oak Flat, a swath of untouched federal land in Arizona that tribe members consider sacred and irreplaceable.

The decision, which leaves intact a lower court’s ruling against the tribe members, marked a major loss for Apache Stronghold, a group that has long argued that the mine’s construction would violate their religious rights by permanently wiping out a unique sacred site used for Apache religious ceremonies.

It allows the U.S. Forest Service to move forward with plans to issue a final environmental impact report and hear a last round of public comment before issuing a decision on transferring the land to Resolution Copper, a joint venture by the multinational mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Group.

Wendsler Nosie Sr., an Apache elder and leader of the Apache Stronghold, said in a statement that his group would continue to defend the land about 70 miles east of Phoenix — including through other court battles challenging the mine and an appeal to Congress to intervene.

“We will never stop fighting — nothing will deter us from protecting Oak Flat from destruction,” Nosie said. “We urge Congress to take decisive action to stop this injustice while we press forward in the courts.”

Vicky Peacey, Resolution Copper’s general manager, said in a statement that the company was pleased the lower court’s decision will stand.

“The Resolution Copper mine is vital to securing America’s energy future, infrastructure needs, and national defense with a domestic supply of copper and other critical minerals,” Peacey said.

She said the project has “significant community support” and “the potential to become one of the largest copper mines in America, add $1 billion a year to Arizona’s economy, and create thousands of local jobs in a region where mining has played an important role for more than a century.”

The high court’s majority did not articulate a stance in the case, but by declining to hear it sided with a heavily divided panel of judges in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled against the Apache in March 2024.

However, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote a dissent — joined by his fellow conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas — saying the majority’s decision not to take the case was “a grievous mistake” and “one with consequences that threaten to reverberate for generations.”

Gorsuch said he had “no doubt” that the high court would have heard the case “if the government sought to demolish a historic cathedral” rather than a Native American sacred site.

“Faced with the government’s plan to destroy an ancient site of tribal worship, we owe the Apaches no less,” Gorsuch wrote. “They may live far from Washington, D.C., and their history and religious practices may be unfamiliar to many. But that should make no difference.”

Gorsuch said no one could “sensibly” argue against the significance of the case. “As the government has made plain, it intends to clear the way for Resolution Copper to begin the destruction of Oak Flat imminently,” he wrote.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another conservative, did not participate in the conversation or decision in the case, though a reason was not provided.

The case touches on a host of politicized issues, including federal land use, religious liberty and efforts to balance corporate interests with limited natural resources and environmental degradation. It also has confounded traditional political divides, including by uniting conservative religious organizations and liberal environmental groups behind the Apache.

The fight between Apache Stronghold and Resolution Copper has been ongoing for years.

Nosie and other Stronghold members have traveled the country since the 9th Circuit ruling against them to raise awareness about their effort. Resolution Copper has continued billions of dollars’ worth of preparations for the mine in the surrounding area, where it has other mining operations, and provided substantial financial support to local officials in the nearby town of Superior, Ariz. — which is braced for an influx of mining employees and their families and the accompanying strains on infrastructure.

At the core of the Apache challenge to the mine is their argument that the mine would not just hamper their ability to practice their religion, but obliterate it.

Oak Flat, on the edge of the Tonto National Forest about an hour outside Phoenix and not far from the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, is used by the Apache for sweats and for coming-of-age ceremonies known as Sunrise Dances, where young girls are ushered into womanhood. The Apache believe the land is blessed by their creator and home to spiritual guardians akin to angels, and researchers have found the site is archaeologically significant not just to the Apache but to Hopi, O’odham, Yavapai and Zuni tribes.

(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)

Oak Flat also sits atop one of the world’s largest untapped copper ore deposits — with enough estimated copper to supply up to a quarter of U.S. copper demand. Such demand has exploded with the proliferation of telecommunications networks, electric vehicles and other technologies that use the element.

The land in question had been under federal protection for decades, until Republicans added language allowing the federal government to sell or swap the land to the mining companies into a must-pass defense bill in 2014. Federal planning records show that extracting the deposit would over the course of several decades turn Oak Flat — which the Apache call Chí’chil Bildagoteel — into a nearly two-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep industrial crater.

(Paul Duginski / Los Angeles Times)

Resolution Copper has said it has worked closely with Native American advisors and worked to avoid important Apache sites in its planning, including nearby Apache Leap. Peacey said the company has been working for more than a decade to “preserve and reduce potential impacts on Tribal, social, and cultural interests,” and will continue to do so.

Apache Stronghold asked the Supreme Court to take up the case after an 11-judge panel of 9th Circuit judges split 6-5 in favor of the federal government’s right to use its land as it chooses. Such splits in circuit decisions often get the attention of the high court, but not always.

Judge Daniel P. Collins, an appointee of President Trump, authored the majority opinion. He wrote that Apache Stronghold’s religious claims failed because, while the federal government’s transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper might interfere with the Apaches’ practice of their religion, it did not “coerce” them into acting contrary to their beliefs, “discriminate” or “penalize” them, or deny them privileges afforded to other citizens.

He wrote that Apache Stronghold had essentially asked the government to give them “de facto” ownership of a “rather spacious tract” of public land, which had to be rejected.

Collins was joined by four other Trump appointees and an appointee of President George W. Bush.

In his dissent Tuesday, Gorsuch wrote that the 9th Circuit “encompasses approximately 74% of all federal land and almost a third of the nation’s Native American population,” so its ruling that the government could destroy a sacred native site on federal land would now govern most if not all “sacred-site disputes” in the country moving forward.

He said that ruling would not just threaten native sites, but all religious sites on federal land — including many churches.

Luke Goodrich, an attorney for Apache Stronghold and senior counsel at the religious rights law firm Becket, said it was “hard to imagine a more brazen attack on faith than blasting the birthplace of Apache religion into a gaping crater,” and the court’s “refusal to halt the destruction is a tragic departure from its strong record of defending religious freedom.”

Times staff writer David G. Savage in Washington contributed to this report.

The high court has declined to hear a bid to block a project that Indigenous groups say would destroy a site of religious significance.

The United States Supreme Court has declined to weigh a bid from a Native American advocacy group to block the construction of a large copper mine on land that many Apache people consider sacred.

The court turned down an appeal by the group Apache Stronghold on Tuesday, keeping in place a lower court’s ruling that would allow the project to move forward.

At the heart of the case is a stretch of federal land in the Tonto National Forest, part of the western state of Arizona.

The San Carlos Apache tribe know the land as Oak Flat — or Chi’chil Bildagoteel in the Apache language. Members of the tribe point out that the land, with its ancient groves of oak, has long been used as a site for prayer, ceremony and burial.

But Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of the mining conglomerates Rio Tinto and BHP, believes the site sits atop the second largest copper deposit in the world.

In 2014, under former President Barack Obama, the US Congress approved a land swap that gave Resolution Copper 9.71sq km (3.75sq miles) of the Oak Flat forest in exchange for other parcels of land in Arizona.

That, in turn, triggered a years-long legal showdown, with members of Arizona’s San Carlos Apache tribe arguing that construction on the Oak Flat site would violate their religious rights. In their petition to the Supreme Court, they described Oak Flat as a “direct corridor to the Creator”.

“Since time immemorial, Western Apaches and other Native peoples have gathered at Oak Flat, outside of present-day Superior, Arizona, for sacred religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else,” Apache Stronghold said in a news release in early May.

The group has also argued that the project would violate an 1852 treaty between the US government and the Apaches, promising that the government would protect the land to “secure the permanent prosperity and happiness” of the tribe.

The administration of President Donald Trump, however, has promised to push through the land transfer. The US Forest Service estimates the mining project could produce nearly 40 billion pounds of copper — or more than 18 billion kilogrammes.

But critics anticipate the result would be a crater as wide as 3km (2 miles) and nearly 304 metres (1,000ft) deep.

By refusing to review the Apache Stronghold’s appeal, the Supreme Court is allowing a decision to stand from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco.

In March 2024, that appeals court ruled along ideological lines to allow the land transfer to proceed: Six judges voted in favour, and five against.

But on May 9, a federal judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the government from transferring the land, while the Apache Stronghold pursued its appeal to the highest court.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in Tuesday’s decision, likely due to his financial ties to the companies involved. But two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, issued a dissent calling the Supreme Court’s decision not to weigh in “a grave mistake”.

“While this Court enjoys the power to choose which cases it will hear, its decision to shuffle this case off our docket
without a full airing is a grievous mistake — one with consequences that threaten to reverberate for generations,” Gorsuch wrote.

“Just imagine if the government sought to demolish a historic cathedral on so questionable a chain of legal reasoning. I have no doubt that we would find that case worth our time.”

The land swap was approved as part of a 2014 defence spending bill. A required environmental impact statement was issued during the final days of Trump’s first term in office in January 2021.