A proposed project to build Ambler Road, a private 211-mile mining access road across the Alaskan wilderness, is poised to advance again after President Donald Trump issued an executive order approving the developer’s appeal and directing federal agencies to “promptly” issue needed authorizations. But the long-delayed project still faces opposition from area tribes and environmental advocates.
The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority has proposed building Ambler Road between James W. Dalton Highway and the Ambler Mineral Belt in northwestern Alaska. The gravel road would ease mining access and material removal but would not be open to the public. It would include four maintenance stations with air strips and 44 material sites along the road.
According to the White House, the road is needed to provide access to the Ambler Mining District, which has more than 1,700 active mining claims. Officials believe the district contains cobalt, germanium and gallium, and potentially also copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold.
“This road will help secure the critical minerals our country needs for economic competitiveness and national defense, while also delivering meaningful benefits here at home,” said Kaleb Froehlich, managing director of Ambler Metals, a joint venture of mining companies South32 and Trilogy Metals that seeks to develop mineral projects in the district.
On the same day Trump issued his executive order, the White House also announced that the U.S. took a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals and has warrants to purchase an additional 7.5% of the company.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers originally OK’d the plan in 2020 during the first Trump administration. However, since the road’s right-of-way would cross through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and traditional lands of several Alaska Native communities, the Biden administration reversed the approvals. Last year, U.S. Interior Dept. officials selected a “No Action” alternative as its choice for the project.
The Trump order now gives agencies just 30 days to re-issue permits, directing officials to “make only ministerial revisions to their authorizations as necessary to reflect changed circumstances.”
A spokesperson for Interior, which includes Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, said via email that the department “is working to issue the permits as directed by the president’s order” but added there were no additional details to share.
Map courtesy National Park Service
Additionally, Congress passed a joint resolution throwing out a Bureau of Land Management resource management plan for Alaska’s Central Yukon region, which had protected more than 3.6 million acres.
Even with permits expected soon, the project has faced legal challenges from environmental advocates and some Alaska Native tribes. The Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of 39 villages and 37 federally recognized tribes that was part of a group that sued to block the project, said it would continue to oppose it, despite the Trump order.
“This decision is a direct affront to the voices of Alaska Native people,” conference Chief/Chairman Brian Ridley said in a statement. “It places corporate and extractive agendas over our rights, our lands and our future.”
Winter Wildlands Alliance, another group that participated in the legal challenge, said the road would cross nearly 3,000 streams and 11 rivers—threatening ecosystems and fish populations, as well as migration routes used by caribou herds. The fish and caribou are both important traditional food sources for locals.
“The fact that the president has taken this unprecedented action to overturn a scientifically-based decision supported by tens of thousands of public comments, including many from Alaska Native voices, undermines the whole public process,” said Anneka Williams, Winter Wildlands Alliance policy director, in a statement. “The Ambler Road will threaten sensitive Arctic landscapes and Native livelihoods, destroying these public lands for the benefit of foreign mining interests.”
The road’s route would also require support from two Alaska Native regional corporations that own some of the land it would cross. In a statement, Ambler Metals said it would work with them to “build consensus and even more local support” for the project.
