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Remember when Rio Tinto, after blasting the 46 000 year-old sacred Aboriginal site in Juukan Gorge, promised that the company would "never again" destroy sites of "exceptional archaeological and cultural significance" during mining operations? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/16/sacred-native-american-land-arizona-oak-flat
"Thousands of feet beneath Oak Flat is a copper deposit estimated to be one of the largest in the world and worth more than $1bn. If the mine goes forward as planned, it will consume 11 square miles, including Apache burial grounds, sacred sites, petroglyphs & medicinal plants."
"For the project to proceed, Rio requires control of more than 10 sq km of national forest used by 11 tribes, where mining was previously prohibited. This would mark the first time the US government has given a sacred site to a foreign mining company." https://www.ft.com/content/4963245d-7ed6-4017-a639-06bf3eb8d8d5
"The Forest Service’s environmental impact report outlined that the mine has a high risk of affecting sacred places. The mine will create a crater roughly two miles wide and one thousand feet deep. It will potentially destroy Oak Flat." https://nit.com.au/rio-tinto-copper-mine-threatens-apache-sacred-land/
Don't focus on the Trump bashing elements of this. The Obama administration also moved the application forward in its last days in office. This is about the power & ruthless amorality of mining companies like Rio Tinto, and the endemic, bipartisan corruption of the US government.
"Rio Tinto lobbied Congress for a land exchange to circumvent the mining ban. That legislation failed 13 times until Sen John McCain - then the largest recipient of Rio Tinto campaign contributions - inserted a rider in a must-pass defense spending bill." https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-administration-rushes-trade-sacred-oak-flat-rio-tinto-massive-arizona-copper-mine-2021-01-07/#.YAPtCbYjm8U.twitter
"Naelyn Pike, co-leader of the Apache Stronghold coalition, said "The proposal is like taking away a church. But the thing about Oak Flat is it’s worse, because you can rebuild a church. Oak Flat will be completely destroyed and it could never come back." https://billmoyers.com/story/the-mine-at-oak-flat-a-timeline-of-a-government-bad-faith/#.YAPuYjeIETI.twitter
The San Carlos Apache tribe has been fighting the transfer of this federal land to Rio Tinto for two decades. Read this extract below, for an insight into the breathtaking corruption at the heart of the US government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Flat_(Arizona)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Flat_(Arizona)
"McCain’s rider also subverted the National Environmental Protection Act, NEPA. As prof. Patrick Parenteau said, McCain designed a “bastardized version” of NEPA protocols to ensure that the mining operation could not fail as long as a review is produced." https://newrepublic.com/article/160940/john-mccains-apache-land-grab-finally-happening
Worth keeping in mind that the two partners in Resolution Copper are both Anglo-Australian mining companies, headquartered in Melbourne and London. The San Carlos Apache, whose interests he subverted, were McCain's actual constituents, whose interests he was elected to represent.
This land-swap will net Rio Tinto and Resolution Copper a windfall profit in excess of $100 billion. The San Carlos Apache Reservation's median annual household income is approximately $27 542, according to the US Census. 49 percent of the inhabitants live under the poverty line.
