Sponsors (34)
Official title: To repeal section 3003 of Public Law 113-291, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 3, 2025 by Adelita S. Grijalva · Last progress December 3, 2025
The bill prioritizes permanent protection of Oak Flat and recognition of tribal and environmental values, trading off potential local mining jobs, lease revenues, and possible supply-chain or diplomatic costs from restricting development.
Indigenous tribes and nearby communities keep Oak Flat as protected public land, preventing large-scale mining and preserving cultural, recreational, and ecological values.
The bill statutorily withdraws the area from mineral and geothermal leasing laws, reducing future legal and permitting uncertainty for land managers and governments.
The bill formally recognizes local and tribal historic resources as at-risk, strengthening the legal and policy basis for protection or remedial actions for those cultural resources.
Preventing mining development could reduce local economic activity, cost potential mining jobs and private investment, and limit business opportunities for small businesses in the area.
Withdrawing the land from leasing and blocking the project may reduce potential federal and local royalties, lease revenue, and other payments tied to mineral development.
Stronger regulatory or export controls and emphasis on foreign ownership could raise copper and other commodity prices or supply-chain costs for U.S. manufacturers, utilities, and consumers.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Repeals the 2015 land-exchange authority and withdraws ~2,422 acres at Oak Flat from public-land and mining laws, barring new mining and mineral disposition while preserving existing valid rights.
Repeals the 2015 statutory land-exchange authority that would allow Resolution Copper to acquire and mine under Oak Flat and withdraws roughly 2,422 acres of Forest Service land at Oak Flat from the public land and mining laws. The withdrawal bars new mining claims, mining patents, and disposition for mineral and geothermal leasing on the Oak Flat area while preserving any valid existing rights at the time of enactment. The law also defines Oak Flat and Resolution Copper for the purposes of the statute and is built on findings about projected environmental, cultural, water-resource, and national-security harms from the proposed mine.