Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining Act
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.
[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1351 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Save Oak Flat From Foreign Mining
Act''.
SEC. 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 Chi'chil
Bi5dagoteel 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.
SEC. 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.
SEC. 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.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Federal Lands.
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