The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on Friday reestablished permits that allow planning and preconstruction activities to resume on a road across federally managed lands to the Ambler Mining District, an area with large deposits of strategic metals.
The permits reestablish a 50-year right-of-way granted in 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term. It was revoked in 2024 by the Biden administration following challenges by environmental organizations and Indigenous groups in Alaska. The road would provide access to a mining district with untapped deposits of copper, cobalt, zinc, gallium, germanium, gold, and silver and would advance the current Trump administration’s push to develop domestic supplies of critical materials.
Last week, the Department of the Interior announced a package of actions to boost energy development in Alaska that includes reopening the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing and completion of right-of-way permits for the Ambler Road project. On Friday, Alaskan government officials executed the permits with the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service.
Trump determined the road project is in the public interest given the country’s need for access to domestic critical minerals, according to a Fact Sheet released by the White House on Oct. 6. The project would run about 211 miles from the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District. There is no economically feasible and prudent alternative route, the White House said.
“The permits for the road have been held for years due to protracted litigation, and the President has finally allowed this project to go forward to support the Administration’s energy dominance agenda,” the White House said.
To further boost domestic energy production, the U.S. Defense Department formed a partnership with Trilogy Metals to support mining exploration in the mining district. The $35.6 million investment makes the U.S. a 10% shareholder in Trilogy Metals and includes warrants to purchase an additional 7.5% of the company, according to the White House.
Environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Winter Wildlands Alliance, argue the road will cause irreparable harm to fragile ecosystems and wildlife. Others, including the National Parks Conservation Association, oppose a route through the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve.
The Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of 42 federally recognized tribes in Interior Alaska, believes the road will disrupt the migratory patterns of caribou and damage fish habitats, threatening the food security and culture of the state’s Native communities. The group promised to continue to fight the road in a post on Facebook.
The NANA Regional Corporation and Doyon Limited, native for-profit corporations in Alaska that own land along the road’s proposed route, must agree to the project before it can move forward.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the permit’s reinstatement fulfills the promise of a law passed in 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. “This was the commitment – this was the exchange, if you will: For areas that we put in an area of conservation status, in recognition that we would need things like transportation corridors, that we would need areas for exploration and development,” Murkowski said in an interview with Alaska Public Media.
Will Rampe, a policy analyst at the Institute for Energy Research, said it typically takes about 27 years for a new mine in the U.S. to obtain the necessary permits, secure financing and begin production.
“This is a great step in the right direction,” said Rampe. “Clearly, we need these minerals to compete with China but given the extent of legal challenges that remain – the number of groups filing these challenges – it remains to be seen how long it will take before mining operations could begin. Rampe said.
