"Rio Tinto and BHP - Billiton have created a subsidiary called Resolution Copper that is proposing to mine a rich copper vein more than 7,000 feet deep just east of Superior, Arizona and an hour east of Phoenix, Arizona. They have pressured some members of the Arizona Congressional delegation to introduce a land exchange bill that would privatize Oak Flat campground and surrounding public land. President Eisenhower placed the campground off limits to mining in 1955.
Oak Flat is a Native American sacred site and it critical for the religious freedom of Arizona Tribes. The land exchange would allow mining companies to avoid following our nation’s environmental and cultural laws and would bypass the permitting process all other mines in the country have followed.