Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act

Bill: 118-hr-1351
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Grijalva, Raúl M. [D-AZ-7]
Introduced: 2023-03-03
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources
Latest action: action_date: 2023-04-14
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Federal Lands.

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-03-03
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act</strong></p> <p>This bill withdraws Oak Flat (which consists of 2,422 acres of Forest System land in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern Arizona) from mining activity. The bill repeals authorization for Oak Flat to be exchanged for land held by Resolution Copper Mining, LLC.</p>

tv_txt: I 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1351 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. Short title This Act may be cited as the “ Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act ”. 2. Findings Congress finds as follows: (1) Resolution Copper is jointly owned by two foreign mining companies, Rio Tinto and BHP. (2) The largest shareholder of Rio Tinto is a foreign mining entity, Shining Prospect Private Limited Company, that is based in Singapore and is owned by the company Chinalco. (3) Chinalco is a holding company of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) of the People’s Republic of China. (4) Rio Tinto has a long record of human rights violations and environmental devastation, harming Indigenous and other communities around the world, including in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Namibia. (5) In 2020, Rio Tinto used explosives to blow up a site sacred to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples in Western Australia, including the Juukan Gorge Rock Dwellings which have evidence of human habitation dating back 46,000 years, resulting in immeasurable cultural and spiritual loss and pain for Indigenous communities. (6) Oak Flat is located in the Tonto National Forest, which was established in 1905 from the ancestral homelands of American Indians who were forcibly removed at gunpoint from Oak Flat and other areas of the Forest by the United States Army during the 1880s and held as prisoners of war until the early 1900s. (7) Oak Flat is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Traditional Cultural Property of Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District. (8) Despite significant opposition in the United States Congress, section 3003 was included as a rider in the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 ( 16 U.S.C. 539p ) that mandates the transfer of 2,422 acres of the sacred Oak Flat area to foreign-owned Resolution Copper within 60 days of publication of an Environmental Impact Statement. (9) To maximize shareholder profits through the monetization of American resources, foreign-owned Resolution Copper plans to use the cheapest and most destructive form of mining, block cave mining, to develop a large-scale copper mine that will obliterate the sacred Oak Flat area and result in a crater 1.8 miles long and at least 1,000 feet deep, depriving American Indians from conducting religious ceremonies and other traditional practices. (10) Section 3003 lacks any requirement for foreign-owned Resolution Copper to sell the copper it extracts from beneath Oak Flat in the United States. (11) According to the United States Geological Survey’s 2023 annual report, over 25 percent of all copper mined in the United States in 2022 was exported overseas. (12) According to a 2020 University of Arizona report, copper has consistently been a top export from the State of Arizona, with most of it being shipped to the People’s Republic of China from the Port of Guaymas in Sonora, Mexico. (13) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper intends to extract copper ore beneath Oak Flat, which will be slurried through 22 miles of pipelines and loaded onto trains to be likely shipped overseas according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. (14) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper’s mine will deplete, destroy, and poison substantial amounts of limited and precious water resources in a region that is already suffering from severe water shortages by— (A) pumping at least 775,000 acre-feet of water, which is approximately 250,000,000,000 gallons over the 40-year life of the mine and is enough water to support 140,000 homes annually for 40 years; and (B) redirecting water from the East Salt River Valley, which will comprise approximately seventy percent of the project’s groundwater that will be used to slurry 1,370,000,000 tons of toxic mine waste through approximately 19 miles of pipelines to a massive toxic waste dump. (15) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper’s massive depletion of local groundwater will cause land subsidence in the East Salt River Valley by as much as 4 feet, and groundwater level decreases by 199 feet in some areas. (16) Despite the rapidly deteriorating drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin, foreign-owned Resolution Copper received an allocation of over 2,200 acre-feet per year of Central Arizona Project water in 2021, while homes across the southwest continue to face looming water restrictions due to oversubscribed water supplies. (17) Foreign-owned Resolution Copper’s mine will result in a permanent toxic waste dump site of approximately 500 feet high and 3 miles long, spanning approximately 4,000 acres, in the Gila River watershed, which will store 1,370,000,000 tons of mine waste and destroy the ecosystem and Tribal cultural resources in the region. 3. Definitions In the Act: (1) Oak flat The term Oak Flat means the approximately 2,422 acres of Forest System land in the Tonto National Forest in southeastern Arizona commonly known as Oak Flat and generally depicted as Oak Flat Withdrawal Area on the map titled Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act and dated March 2, 2023. (2) Resolution copper The term Resolution Copper means Resolution Copper Mining, LLC, owned by the foreign entities of Rio Tinto and BHP. 4. Repeal and withdrawal (a) Repeal Section 3003 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. Buck McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 ( 16 U.S.C. 539p ) is repealed. (b) Withdrawal Subject to valid rights in existence on the date of the enactment of this Act, Oak Flat is withdrawn from all forms of— (1) entry, appropriation, or disposal under the public land laws; (2) location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and (3) disposition under all laws pertaining to mineral and geothermal leasing or mineral materials.