Trump administration ready to ink a deal for China-linked company to get Arizona copper mine

President Trump vowed to combat Chinese control of U.S. land and minerals, yet the administration is pursuing a deal to open up federal land in Arizona to a mining company linked to China.

Under the deal, Resolution Copper would take control of Oak Flat, a 2,200-acre area in the Tonto National Forest near Superior, Arizona, in exchange for private lands in the U.S. owned by the foreign mining giant.

Resolution Copper would then turn Oak Flat into a giant copper mine, which the Trump administration says could supply as much as a quarter of the U.S. demand for copper.

The deal, however, raises national security alarms.

Resolution Copper is a venture between two multinational mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP. Rio Tinto’s largest shareholder is Chinalco, a Chinese state-owned company that owns roughly 15% of the company.

A loophole in the deal, critics say, allows Resolution Copper to send unrefined copper overseas for processing and sale. That would put China in a position to import 40 billion pounds of American unrefined copper worth more than $160 billion.

It is somewhat surprising that the Trump administration would endorse the transfer, given its recent efforts to combat Beijing’s footprint in the U.S.

Last month, the Agriculture Department announced a seven-point plan to limit Chinese purchases of American farmland while Mr. Trump is seeking a U.S. buyer for TikTok. The administration has cited national security concerns for both efforts.

Mr. Trump also has sought precious metals in virtually all of his trade deals. Copper is among the most valuable critical minerals with applications in electronics, construction and medical equipment. America is currently facing a copper crisis as demand for the metal surges faster than it can be refined.

The U.S. produces less than half of the copper it uses and ranks fifth in global production, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

“The government says minerals are a national security issue … and that’s really ironic because the people they want to give the copper to are effectively the Chinese government,” said Joe Davis, senior legal counsel at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing a group of Native American and Christian organizations suing to stop the deal.

“They’re giving away a valuable hunk of American copper to a Chinese company that will, in all likelihood, refine it in China and ship it back to us only for us to pay a premium that will enrich Chinese pockets,” he said.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the deal because the site is sacred to Western Apaches, but the legal action hasn’t slowed down the transaction.

The land exchange is scheduled to take place on Aug. 19, now that the U.S. Forest Service has completed its environmental review.

The White House said the land transfer will reduce U.S. reliance on critical minerals imported from other countries, including China, which dominates the industry for the production and processing of precious metals, including copper.

“The Resolution Copper Mining Project will play a key role in President Trump’s mission to Make America Energy Dominant Again and is expected to meet 25% of U.S. demand for copper when it’s fully operational,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “This president is quickly ramping up production of critical minerals while supporting a great American company.”

A senior White House official downplayed Resolution Copper’s ties to China, saying Chinalco owns over 14% of Rio Tinto, which would be the majority owner of the site, while the rest is owned by private investors, and that BHP is roughly 98% owned by retail investors.

The official also said it’s “totally false” to suggest that the land would be transferred to China because Resolution Copper is exchanging 5,459 acres of conservation lands for the 2,422 acres in the Tonto National Forest.

Resolution Copper did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Its website boasts that the mine will generate roughly 3,700 direct and indirect jobs, producing up to $61 billion in economic benefits to Arizona over the project’s 60-year life span.

The venture also predicts Arizona could reap as much as $113 million per year in local tax revenues, while the federal government could receive an extra $200 million annually in taxes.

Resolution Copper did not say if any of the copper mined at the site will be shipped to China or how much will be returned to the U.S.

However, almost all of the copper mined beneath Oak Flat will have to be exported to China for processing because the U.S. doesn’t have significant refining capacity, said Christopher J. Dolan, who teaches homeland security and public policy at Pennsylvania State University.

A 2020 University of Arizona study found that virtually all of Arizona’s copper ore is exported to Mexico, where it is then shipped to China and other Asian countries. About $35 million in copper mined in Arizona was sent to China via Mexico in 2019, according to the study.

“The United States has very little when it comes to minerals, mining and extraction, but we are going to send a piece of it to an entity that is partly owned by the Chinese Communist Party. That doesn’t seem rational to me,” Mr. Dolan said. “To me, that is a national security risk and the Trump administration is slow walking itself into a blunder.”

To access the copper ore, Resolution will drill tunnels and then let them collapse, a method known as block cave mining. Once collapsed, the ore will be moved to a crushing facility, but that method will leave behind a crater about 1,000 feet deep and nearly two miles wide, annihilating much of the site’s religious and environmental features.

A 2014 law passed by Congress requires the Forest Service to trade Oak Flat to Resolution Copper within 60 days of the Forest Service publishing its environmental impact statement, which it did on June 19.

Resolution Copper has argued in court filings that the land exchange can’t be stopped because it was authorized by Congress when the deal was attached to a defense bill by lawmakers led by Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, in December 2014. 

It also said that the Forest Service’s environmental impact statement was “rigorous,” “independent,” and in consultation with the tribes who oppose the exchange.

Mr. Davis and legal experts argue that the Trump administration is not bound by the agreement, and Mr. Trump has the tools to stop it. He could stop the deal through executive order, pause the project or even work with lawmakers to overturn the 2014 law.

“There’s nobody forcing them to do this, and, of course, there are executive branch fixes and legislative branch fixes that the administration could support. So the notion that they are bound to do this right now is simply false,” he said.

The first Trump administration issued a final environmental analysis for the mine in 2019, just a few weeks before leaving office. The Biden administration pulled the document to conduct further talks with tribes, pausing the project. When Mr. Trump returned to the White House, his administration announced it would fast-track the deal with Resolution Copper.

In 2021, the coalition, dubbed Apache Stronghold, filed a lawsuit challenging the transfer on religious grounds. An appellate court upheld the deal, and in May, the Supreme Court rejected a request to hear the case.

Apache Stronghold has asked the Supreme Court for a rehearing, something the court rarely does.

Other suits challenging the environmental review for the mine, including by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, are also meandering through the courts, though not expected to stop the project.