Biden administration to halt major mining project over tribal hunting concerns

The Department of Interior is set to announce a ruling that would effectively halt a major mining development in Alaska over concerns that dozens of local tribes will be disrupted by the project.

The Biden administration was set to issue a “no action” ruling for the federal land previously set to be the site of Ambler Road, a proposed 211-mile industrial road deep through the Alaskan wilderness, multiple news outlets reported.

The project was set to go through the Arctic National Park and Preserve, a major piece of protected land in the northern half of the state.

The news could end a years-long battle between local tribes who opposed the project due to its impact on subsistence hunting, which is a major part of some tribal lifestyles across the state.

The project was also a controversial issue for the tribes as it was approved just days before Donald Trump left office by an Interior head who Politico found to have covered up environmental and tribal impacts studied as part of the planning process.

Now, it looks like the project is dead; the refusal of the federal government to allow construction of a road means there remains no plan for a supply chain to be set up to allow access to large copper and zinc deposits known as the Ambler Mining District in Alaska’s northwest. The minerals are key components in batteries and engines for electric vehicles.

The Tanana Chiefs Conference, a tribal group representing dozens of villages, had long fought the project and warned that the road and associated mines would “have devastating impacts on all fish in-migration and out-migration, spawning and rearing habitat, and will especially compromise species at risk like Chinook” due to the sheer number of rivers and estuaries the