I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1351 

To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon 

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 3, 2023 

Mr. GRIJALVA (for himself, Mr. SABLAN, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. GOMEZ, and Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To repeal section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. 

‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for 

Fiscal Year 2015, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Save Oak Flat From 

5 Foreign Mining Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) Resolution Copper is jointly owned by two 

9 foreign mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP. 


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1 (2) The largest shareholder of Rio Tinto is a 

2 foreign mining entity, Shining Prospect Private 

3 Limited Company, that is based in Singapore and is 

4 owned by the company Chinalco. 

5 (3) Chinalco is a holding company of the State6 owned Assets Supervision and Administration Com7 mission of the State Council (SASAC) of the Peo8 ple’s Republic of China. 

9 (4) Rio Tinto has a long record of human 

10 rights violations and environmental devastation, 

11 harming Indigenous and other communities around 

12 the world, including in Australia, Papua New Guin13 ea, Madagascar, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Namibia. 

14 (5) In 2020, Rio Tinto used explosives to blow 

15 up a site sacred to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and 

16 Pinikura peoples in Western Australia, including the 

17 Juukan Gorge Rock Dwellings which have evidence 

18 of human habitation dating back 46,000 years, re19 sulting in immeasurable cultural and spiritual loss 

20 and pain for Indigenous communities. 

21 (6) Oak Flat is located in the Tonto National 

22 Forest, which was established in 1905 from the an23 cestral homelands of American Indians who were 

24 forcibly removed at gunpoint from Oak Flat and 

25 other areas of the Forest by the United States Army 


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1 during the 1880s and held as prisoners of war until 

2 the early 1900s. 

3 (7) Oak Flat is listed on the National Register 

4 of Historic Places as the Traditional Cultural Prop5 erty of Chı ́’chil Bi5dagoteel Historic District. 

6 (8) Despite significant opposition in the United 

7 States Congress, section 3003 was included as a 

8 rider in the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ 

9 McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for 

10 Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) that mandates 

11 the transfer of 2,422 acres of the sacred Oak Flat 

12 area to foreign-owned Resolution Copper within 60 

13 days of publication of an Environmental Impact 

14 Statement. 

15 (9) To maximize shareholder profits through 

16 the monetization of American resources, foreign17 owned Resolution Copper plans to use the cheapest 

18 and most destructive form of mining, block cave 

19 mining, to develop a large-scale copper mine that 

20 will obliterate the sacred Oak Flat area and result 

21 in a crater 1.8 miles long and at least 1,000 feet 

22 deep, depriving American Indians from conducting 

23 religious ceremonies and other traditional practices. 

24 (10) Section 3003 lacks any requirement for 

25 foreign-owned Resolution Copper to sell the copper 


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1 it extracts from beneath Oak Flat in the United 

2 States. 

3 (11) According to the United States Geological 

4 Survey’s 2023 annual report, over 25 percent of all 

5 copper mined in the United States in 2022 was ex6 ported overseas. 

7 (12) According to a 2020 University of Arizona 

8 report, copper has consistently been a top export 

9 from the State of Arizona, with most of it being 

10 shipped to the People’s Republic of China from the 

11 Port of Guaymas in Sonora, Mexico. 

12 (13) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper intends 

13 to extract copper ore beneath Oak Flat, which will 

14 be slurried through 22 miles of pipelines and loaded 

15 onto trains to be likely shipped overseas according to 

16 the Arizona Department of Transportation. 

17 (14) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper’s mine 

18 will deplete, destroy, and poison substantial amounts 

19 of limited and precious water resources in a region 

20 that is already suffering from severe water shortages 

21 by— 

22 (A) pumping at least 775,000 acre-feet of 

23 water, which is approximately 250,000,000,000 

24 gallons over the 40-year life of the mine and is 


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1 enough water to support 140,000 homes annu2 ally for 40 years; and 

3 (B) redirecting water from the East Salt 

4 River Valley, which will comprise approximately 

5 seventy percent of the project’s groundwater 

6 that will be used to slurry 1,370,000,000 tons 

7 of toxic mine waste through approximately 19 

8 miles of pipelines to a massive toxic waste 

9 dump. 

10 (15) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper’s mas11 sive depletion of local groundwater will cause land 

12 subsidence in the East Salt River Valley by as much 

13 as 4 feet, and groundwater level decreases by 199 

14 feet in some areas. 

15 (16) Despite the rapidly deteriorating drought 

16 conditions in the Colorado River Basin, foreign17 owned Resolution Copper received an allocation of 

18 over 2,200 acre-feet per year of Central Arizona 

19 Project water in 2021, while homes across the 

20 southwest continue to face looming water restric21 tions due to oversubscribed water supplies. 

22 (17) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper’s mine 

23 will result in a permanent toxic waste dump site of 

24 approximately 500 feet high and 3 miles long, span25 ning approximately 4,000 acres, in the Gila River 


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1 watershed, which will store 1,370,000,000 tons of 

2 mine waste and destroy the ecosystem and Tribal 

3 cultural resources in the region. 

4 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In the Act: 

6 (1) OAK FLAT.—The term ‘‘Oak Flat’’ means 

7 the approximately 2,422 acres of Forest System 

8 land in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern 

9 Arizona commonly known as ‘‘Oak Flat’’ and gen10 erally depicted as ‘‘Oak Flat Withdrawal Area’’ on 

11 the map titled ‘‘Save Oak Flat From Foreign Min12 ing Act’’ and dated March 2, 2023. 

13 (2) RESOLUTION COPPER.—The term ‘‘Resolu14 tion Copper’’ means Resolution Copper Mining, 

15 LLC, owned by the foreign entities of Rio Tinto and 

16 BHP. 

17 SEC. 4. REPEAL AND WITHDRAWAL. 

18 (a) REPEAL.—Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and 

19 Howard P. ‘‘Buck’’ McKeon National Defense Authoriza20 tion Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (16 U.S.C. 539p) is re21 pealed. 

22 (b) WITHDRAWAL.—Subject to valid rights in exist23 ence on the date of the enactment of this Act, Oak Flat 

24 is withdrawn from all forms of— 


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1 (1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the 

2 public land laws; 

3 (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining 

4 laws; and 

5 (3) disposition under all laws pertaining to min6 eral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials. 

Æ 


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