THE US Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from Apache groups seeking to stop a massive copper mine being sunk on federal land they hold sacred.

Apaches have been fighting the proposed project since 2014, when then Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake attached a clause to the National Defence Authorisation Act, an annual piece of Congress legislation which authorises military spending, transferring land on Oak Flat in the state’s Tonto National Forest to mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto. 

Attaching unrelated clauses to legislation as a condition of supporting it is a common but controversial aspect of US lawmaking. Critics pointed to Mr Flake’s former career working for Rio Tinto, and Mr McCain’s receipt of campaign donations from it.

The land had previously been protected as of religious significance to the Apache people, with legal challenges focusing on a commitment to protect their lands in the Treaty of Santa Fe of 1852.

Dissenting justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas wrote: “Recognising Oak Flat’s significance, the government has long protected both the land and the Apaches’ access to it... Now, the government and a mining conglomerate want to turn Oak Flat into a massive hole in the ground.”