Now that a land exchange deal between the U.S. Forest Service and Resolution Copper is complete as of March 16, bringing the proposed Resolution Copper underground mine outside the Town of Superior closer to fruition, opponents of the project say they will continue to seek avenues to stop the project.
The deal is lined out in the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act, which was signed into law in December 2014. It grants roughly 2,400 acres of Tonto National Forest land around Oak Flat — an area just outside the Town of Superior holding the second largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world — to Resolution Copper. The company was founded in 2004 as a joint venture between two of the world’s largest mining companies, BHP and Rio Tinto, with the intent to mine this land. In return, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management receive approximately 5,400 acres of non-federal lands owned by Resolution Copper.
The exchange allows for Resolution Copper to develop what is slated to be one of the largest copper mines in America.
To the Apache people, Oak Flat is Chi'chil Biłdagoteel, land of their ancestors and a sacred site where they and other Native Americans have gone to worship, pray and conduct religious ceremonies for centuries. Recognizing its cultural and natural value, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared Oak Flat off limits to mining in a public land order in 1955.
Given that the underground mine would create a crater about 1,000 feet deep and nearly two miles wide at Oak Flat, opponents say this would render this historical place of worship unusable and prevent these groups from engaging in their religious exercises. Therefore the San Carlos Apache Tribe and other Native American tribes maintain that this violates their religious freedoms.
Environmental groups argue that the underground mine would also cause environmental impacts on the surrounding land, impacting groundwater, fault lines and natural habitats.
“Consider the depletion and the contamination of water, the right to live and worship God where you feel the closest to creation, the death of many plants, trees, and animals,” said lifelong Superior resident Anna Jeffrey.
“To the true caretakers of this earth, this area is very sacred,” she said. “In reality, they were here first, and they should be granted back this sacred, life-giving land. Their ancestors are buried there, they lived and died there.”
The Resolution Copper deposit is just south of the historic Magma Mine. Resolution Copper is expected to produce up to 25 percent of the U.S. copper demand, producing as much as 40 billion pounds of copper over 40 years. The company projects that the mine would be one of the largest in the U.S., contribute to approximately 3,500 direct and indirect jobs, and add an estimated $1 billion a year to Arizona’s economy once in operation. Proponents of this project say this project is needed and would bring economic promise, particularly to neighboring Superior.
“Hey, let's face it. We live in a world right now where copper is such an essential resource. It's literally in everything in our homes or infrastructures,” said Nancy Giordano, who has operated her restaurant Bella’s Cafe in Superior for the last four years. “Renewable energy, which everybody wants, electric vehicles, which everybody wants. It's something we rely on every day.”
Superior’s economy has primarily relied on copper mining through its booms and busts, dating back to the 1910s when the Magma Mine was developed by the Magma Copper Company.
“It's exciting to be at this new phase, having gone through the major busts of mining, to be back at the helm of seeing mining come back to our community,” said Superior Mayor Mila Besich, following the March 16 completion of the land exchange. “Mining has always been part of our economic DNA; Superior was a town that was founded around mining.”
“I am relieved to be moving forward,” she said.
The land exchange has been in limbo for years as various groups opposing the bill brought legal challenges against it to court, most recently in August 2025, when a federal appeals court granted an emergency injunction, temporarily halting the government's planned transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper.
“Is this project controversial? Of course it is,” said Superior resident Jim Schenck, intern for the Town of Superior and a resident since 2014. He formerly worked for Rio Tinto as a manager for communities and social performance.
It wasn’t until last month that the land exchange was complete, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision on March 13, denying a legal request by several parties to temporarily stop the project because their arguments were not viable, according to the decision.
Three days after the court’s determination, the Forest Service transferred the land to Resolution Copper.
The court decision and completion of the exchange have spurred a flurry of challenges, including a counteracting bill and statements from the opposition stating they will continue to fight the development of the mine legally.
“The consequences of this mine will be epic,” said San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler in a statement released by the San Carlos Apache Tribe on March 19. “We refuse to back down from this fight.”
According to another March 19 statement released by Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold, a San Carlos-based nonprofit and one of the primary opposition groups fighting the mining project on the basis of religious freedom, several pending cases could still halt the project’s development.
In addition to Apache Stronghold, there are other plaintiffs in the case filed at the Ninth Circuit, including several environmental groups, the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition and the San Carlos Apache Tribe. Several of the plaintiffs could still appeal the case to the Supreme Court or ask the Ninth Circuit to reconsider the case, Nosie said.
The tribe’s March 19 statement said it will challenge the legitimacy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to transfer ownership of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper. The tribe says the transfer was premature and had been done before the judicial review process had been completed.
San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler authorized the tribe’s attorneys to file an en banc rehearing with the Ninth Circuit, requesting review of its case by its en banc court of 11 judges. The appeal was initially only heard by a three judge-panel, which is standard in U.S. Court of Appeal cases.
A day after the land exchange, Rep. Adelita Grijalva, of Arizona’s 7th U.S. Congressional District, introduced a bill to protect the land surrounding the exchange parcel, citing the fact that the National Park Service listed Chi'chil Biłdagoteel Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Meanwhile, with the land exchange complete, Resolution Copper announced that it anticipates spending approximately $500 million over the next two years to support things such as surface drilling, closeout and mitigation costs associated with the land exchange, funding to support Native American and local communities, upgrades to existing project infrastructure and initial underground development activities.
The Forest Service was required to file an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of federal actions that would significantly affect the environment prior to the action being made. The Forest Service initiated the process in March 2016, and the agency published the final statement on June 20, 2025.
“I've been the mayor for 10 years, and this has been a long time coming as we went through this entire permitting process,” Besich said. “The environmental impact statement for Resolution Copper has been one of the largest and most complex environmental impact statements processed under NEPA.”
“My biggest concern is the water,” said Maria Salcido, a fourth generation resident of Superior who comes from a mining family. She is a real estate agent who is running for mayor in the town’s upcoming election. “The EIS gives lots of information in reference to the aquifers, the damage, the pollution and the corruption of the water.”
“We knew the EIS identified things that were risks for Superior and water, and we negotiated that directly with the company, and we were able to put those into the environmental impact statement and the record of decisions,” Besich said. “So those challenges are kind of held in the federal record for future generations to go to and say, hey, [these are] the realities about water, making sure that our aquifer is safe and is managed.”
Since Superior is within the Phoenix Active Management Area for groundwater, Besich said the town will have plenty of water for the housing needed to grow.
Additionally, she said a watershed group will soon be set up and funded with a $5 million endowment.
“So we can continue on to work on other water mitigation issues, whether it is long-term storage ponds, or if it is just preparing our town to get rid of more of the invasive species,” she said.
The Superior Community Working Group, an organization established to facilitate dialogue between local residents and Resolution Copper, has a water monitoring group that takes water samples on a quarterly basis.
“That will take on greater importance as the mine goes under construction and goes into production,” Schenck said.
Schenck sees the mine as an opportunity to spur economic growth in Superior. Over the years, he said that the town has been able to negotiate with Resolution Copper for things like payments for the extension of Superior’s LOST trail system, as well as financial support for buildings and heritage buildings within the Copper Corridor.
“We're working hard to make sure that it's an economic driver that benefits the current residents,” he said. “And we're trying to ensure affordability for families that have lived here for generations. So yeah, I do think that there are going to be opportunities for local entrepreneurs [and] small businesses.”
Additionally, Besich says the Town of Superior will acquire 546 acres of new developable land thanks to a separate land exchange agreement with Resolution Copper within the 2014 bill. This exchange will allow the town to further develop its airport, as well as housing and other retail, commercial and potential industrial spaces.
“So we'll be creating additional jobs on top of the mining jobs that will be coming with the Resolution Copper movement,” she said.
Giordano said she has already seen a positive impact on the town from Resolution Copper’s presence.
“Where I stand as a business owner and community member, the economic impact and the support we've been experiencing is really incredibly positive,” she said.
Meanwhile, Salcido said she is concerned that many of the jobs created by the mining project will be controlled overseas, since China dominates the copper refining industry and the U.S. exports significant amounts of copper scrap and ore.
She also expressed concern that the town will hardly gain any tax revenue from the project, given that mining tax revenue in Arizona is primarily sourced from a 2.5% severance tax distributed to incorporated municipalities and counties largely based on population.
Within the community of Superior, between the arguments for and against the Resolution Copper project, Giordano says she understands both sides.
“I just hope that things move forward, and there has to be a continued dialogue, obviously, like mutual respect for the opposing sides,” she said. “I respect the people that are really strong about Oak Flat. And I think that their voices deserve to be heard. But I think it has to be within the context of being fair to the mine.”
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