Superior AZ. Queen Creek Canyon
Total mess up of a simple land exchange. Rio Tinto has lands that should be protected, a joining national parks and great national forests and the area around Superior has already been mined in the past. Anyone who has actually been to Queen Creek Canyon would not fight this land trade with a permit.
I won't be surprised if this goes through in a few months. It's based on the
Tribal Consultation and Strengthening Nation-to-Nation Relationships signed by the Big Guy on his first day in office, knowingly or unknowingly. It relates to consulting with the tribes and recognizing their Tribal Sovereignty. Actually a restatement of an EO from 2009. Since this land is not on a reservation or tribal owned land, there is no sovereignty. Big Guy better not be extending "sovereignty" based on the fact that natives once lived here, or like the land, because his home state of Delaware has zero reservations, despite the fact that natives once lived there. The Delaware who didn't assimilate now live on reservations in Canada and Oklahoma, and have nothing to say about what Big Guy might wish to build on his Delaware home. Which is how it should be. He would disagree in the Arizona case, but would support property rights in the case of Delaware.
There are several reservations in the vicinity of the proposed mine, they might even appreciate jobs.