Rio Tinto Secures Resolution Copper Land, Launches US$500 Million Drill Program

Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,NYSE:RIO,LSE:RIO) has cleared a key legal hurdle at its Resolution Copper project in Arizona, allowing the miner to advance exploration at a deposit expected to rank among the largest sources of the metal in the US.

The group said it has secured control of land required for the project following a land swap with the US Forest Service, gaining access to 2,400 acres believed to host more than 40 billion pounds of copper. In exchange, Rio transferred 5,400 acres to the federal government.

The move follows a US appeals court decision rejecting attempts to block the transfer, while the US Supreme Court declined to intervene, effectively ending a years-long legal dispute tied to the project.

Rio Tinto said it will now proceed with a US$500 million drilling program to assess parts of the deposit that were previously inaccessible, a step needed before determining construction timelines and production forecasts.

The Resolution project, owned 55 percent by Rio Tinto and 45 percent by BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP), has been in development for more than a decade and has already attracted over US$2 billion in investment.

It is expected to supply more than a quarter of US copper demand over its life, serving as a strategic cornerstone as Washington seeks to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical minerals.

“We are quite committed to bringing copper on as quickly as we can,” Katie Jackson, head of Rio’s copper business, told Reuters. “This is something we want to do in the early- to mid-2030s.”

The project has faced sustained opposition from the San Carlos Apache, who consider the site, known as Oak Flat, to be sacred. Legal challenges have centered on religious rights and land use, but courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of allowing the land exchange to proceed.

While the legal clarity removes a major overhang, the project still faces execution risks. Rio Tinto has yet to complete detailed studies on the newly accessible portion of the orebody, while questions still remain around permitting timelines and processing economics.

The company has also signaled that US smelting capacity and pricing structures may not fully support domestic processing, raising the possibility that some output could be exported as concentrate.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.