Almost got it
Angela MuÑiz of Tempe struggles to figure out the best arrangement of hands and feet as she clambers up a boulder at Oak Flat.

Resolution Copper has a deal for climbers, bird watchers and nature lovers.
The company has offered to help set up a state rock-climbing park and strengthen protection of environmentally sensitive lands in southern Arizona. In return, Resolution wants to acquire an area near Superior known as Oak Flat. Here, it would develop a new, deep-underground copper mine.
Part of the Tonto National Forest, Oak Flat has long been popular with climbers and bird watchers.
The deal hinges on a land swap of no small size. Resolution has offered some 5,500 acres of private land purchased just for the trade. It would receive more 3,200 acres around Oak Flat.
Congress would need to approve the exchange.
For some climbers and — perhaps to a lesser extent — environmentalists, the offer is a welcome gesture. As they see it, more lands would be set aside for climbing and preservation than would be lost. For others, perhaps a bit more wary, the proposed trade at least offers enough to mute their opposition.
Land swap has critics
Not everybody, however, sees this as a win-win deal. Talk of a land swap continues to draw complaints from climbers and environmentalists who think that Oak Flat is worth preserving. And nearby Apache tribes have left little room for doubt. They have gone on record in opposing the trade.
Oak Flat sits back from the edge of a towering escarpment known as Apache Leap. The town of Superior lies below, a little more than 60 miles east of downtown Phoenix. U.S. Highway 60 runs through Superior and skirts Apache Leap as its winds toward Oak Flat up alongside a canyon carved out by Queen Creek.
Cliffs of large rocks stacked one on top the other line the route. At Oak Flat itself, boulders of 30 feet in height or more seemed to have been dropped from the sky. They’re not far from the Oak Flat campground, owned and operated by U.S. Forest Service. Oak Flat lies along the southern boundary of Tonto National Forest.
Magnet for climbers
These cliffs and boulders are a magnet for climbers from the Valley. Until 2005, climbers gathered at Oak Flat each year for the Phoenix Boulder Blast. Birders, meanwhile, continue to flock to Oak Flat and nearby canyons to catch a glimpse of a black-chinned sparrow or gray vireo.
Nature lovers enjoy a getaway that’s little more than a half-hour drive from Apache Junction. Apaches from the San Carlos and White Mountain reservations harvest oak acorns as part of a traditional diet.
Resolution Copper, on the other hand, is interested in what lies under Oak Flat — possibly one of the largest bodies of copper on the planet. According to a company spokesman, Oak Flat could yield up to 600,000 tons of copper a year.
At the current price of copper — about $3 per pound — a year’s haul comes to more than $3.5 billion.
To get to the ore, Resolution needs to go some 7,000 feet below the surface. The investment needed just to start mining is expected to run as high as $2.5 billion. That includes a study just to make sure that that much ore is really down there, and if it’s worth the effort to dig it up.
If it is, construction required to bring up that first load of ore could take five years or more. During this first phase, and once the mine gets underway, miners and other laborers will need room to work. And the public itself would need to be kept out of harm’s way, Resolution managers say.
To do this, managers say, the company needs more than a permission slip from the U.S. Forest Service. It needs title to the ground atop the ore, says Resolution President John Rickus.
“The question you have to ask is, would you invest a fortune in a house on land you don’t own≠ And the answer would be, no, you wouldn’t,” Rickus said.
His Welsh accent hints at the international makeup of Resolution. It’s a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group, a worldwide mining company. Rio Tinto has a majority stake in Resolution, in partnership with BHP Billiton. Both companies have offices in London and Melbourne.
To get ownership of Oak Flat, Resolution proposed the land swap with the federal government. It was crafted to make up for the loss of Oak Flat. Climbers would get a new climbing park, new habitat would be set aside for birds and Apaches would get new areas to gather traditional foods.
At first glance, Resolution has come up with a deal to please everybody.
But not everyone is pleased.
Paul Dief, for one, wonders if Oak Flat is being too easily given up. Dief is owner of the Phoenix Rock Gym in Tempe and a founder of Friends of Queen Creek, a climbing advocacy group.
Oak Flat off limits since 1955
Oak Flat, to Dief, is more than a place for a few weekend rock climbers. It’s a scenic and recreational keystone to Tonto National Forest, one President Eisenhower put off limits to mining by executive order in 1955.
“It’s beautiful. That’s why it was set aside,” Dief says.
In a 2004 position paper, Friends of Queen Creek criticized Resolution’s land-swap offer, arguing that it would permit an end-run around what’s known as the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The law requires environmental impact studies for proposed developments on federal land.
It’s a charge echoed by the Sierra Club, which also opposes the trade.
“The whole reason for going to Congress was to bypass the environmental protections,” says Sandy Bahr, legislative lobbyist for the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon chapter.
But Rickus says that’s not true. Resolution, he says, is doing its own environmental assessment at Oak Flat, in accordance with NEPA guidelines. The parent company, Rio Tinto, he adds, follows strict environmental procedures in all its operations — even in countries where the rules are lax.
For the Friends of Queen Creek, however, the debate comes down to one simple point. The group opposes the loss of Oak Flat as a climbing venue.
The Oak Flat plateau inside the Tonto National Forest is strewn with challenging boulders. Climbers also tackle the rock-lined canyons along Queen Creek. U.S. 60 hugs them as it rises from Superior, before it disappears into the Queen Creek tunnel.
Resolution Copper officials point out that the company already owns much of Queen Creek and the canyons below Oak Flat. The property was originally in the hands of now-defunct Magma Copper Company, later acquired by BHP Billiton, now Resolution’s junior partner.
Resolution, however, has not ordered the climbers from its canyon. It has instead made peace with them — for now.
“We basically have an agreement that they can access to a number of areas for climbing,” Rickus says.
That agreement came about with help from the Access Fund, a non-profit group headquartered in Boulder, Colo. The fund works to keep outdoor areas open to climbers.
As agreed, Dief says, the Access Fund will pay Resolution $2,000 a year for what amounts to an insurance policy against liability. Resolution will continue to allow climbers using these canyons and parts of Oak Flat for five years, counting from the time the land swap goes through.
After that, increased mining activity would lead to closing off Oak Flat altogether, says Rickus, Resolution president.
“We don’t want to expose anybody to danger and accidents, and so on,” he says.
1 climbing event cancelled
Oak Flat, for now, remains in federal hands. Even so, one big climbing event has already taken a dive. That was the Phoenix Boulder Blast. The last blast was in 2004. It was a social gathering, with booths and sponsors, but the centerpiece was the climbing competition. Points were awarded for difficulty and types of routes on various boulders.
Resolution Copper even chipped in to become a Boulder Blast silver sponsor in the event’s final years.
Now the main event at Oak Flat is the more subdued Flapper Fest. People socialize and climb, but on a much smaller scale. The event’s name comes from loose-hanging skin on a climber’s palms — after it has been torn free on the rock’s surface.
Once Resolution begins mining in earnest, the Flapper Fest will go the way of the Boulder Blast.
Copper State Rock Climbing Park
But as Oak Flat gives way to mining, Resolution managers point out that climbers would have new a mountain to scale. That would come with the creation of the Copper State Rock Climbing Park, to be run by the Arizona State Parks Department.
The climbing park is a key component of the land exchange bill before Congress. The Legislature did its part creating the park last session with the passage of S1550.
The legislation provides for the climbing park to be anchored on 2,000 acres now in the hands of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The BLM would deed the land over to the state — as part of the Oak Flat exchange.
The centerpiece would be the 4,600-foot Tam O’Shanter Peak, so-named because the top somewhat resembles the Scottish cap.
“Many climbers are claiming that this is one of the best climbing sites in the state,” Rickus says.
Boulderer scouted areas for mining company
One of them is John Sherman, hired by Resolution to find a suitable alternative to Oak Flat. Sherman is recognized as a world-class boulderer and creator of the scoring method now used in boulder competition. For Resolution, he scouted climbing areas around the state — sometimes surveying sites by helicopter.
He found a place not far from Oak Flat. The Dripping Springs Mountains, east of Kearney, lie at a northwest-to-southeast slant between state highways 177 and 77.
On his Web site, www.climbtamo.com, Sherman says: “It didn’t take my crew long to realize that Tam O’Shanter — or Tamo as we came to call it — would become one of the crown jewels of Southwest rock climbing.”
“It looks to me like a fair replacement of what’s lost,” says Bill Williams, health, safety, environment and construction officer for Resolution Copper.
Resolution spokesman Troy Corder says Copper State Climbing Park has the potential to become a key part of a Western climbing circuit that runs from Texas to California.
It’s not an opinion shared by all.
“I don’t know of anybody who thinks that this is a world-class climbing area,” says Erik Filsinger, land advocacy chairman for the Arizona Mountaineering Club.
Dief, owner of the Phoenix Rock Gym in Tempe, agrees.
“The rock’s just not the same,” he says. “It’s just different. It’s not an equal trade.”
Another drawback, he says: The state-designated climbing park would be a longer drive from Phoenix, making a daytrip all the more difficult. At the moment, there’s no easy way to get to Tam O’Shanter as it is. The final leg is an excursion over rugged dirt roads requiring a high-clearance four-wheel drive vehicle.
Access has not been overlooked, however, says Jay Ziemann, assistant director for the Arizona State Parks Department. Resolution has agreed to build an improved road, Ziemann says.
Specifically, Resolution would pay $500,000 to build the road. An Interior Department official, however, told members of a congressional subcommittee last May that a half-million dollars would not be enough. The official said the BLM — part of Interior — does not have funding to pick up the remainder.
Admission fees
If a road is constructed to a climbing park that does become a reality, visitors would likely face an added inconvenience — an admission fee. Oak Flat is free. All state parks charge to get in, and it’s not always cheap, Bahr of the Sierra Club says.
“Our parks already have high fees because they’re not funded by the Legislature,” she says. Referring to Copper State Climbing Park, she added: “How high are the fees going to have to be≠”
Ziemann says the fees would provide amenities climbers currently don’t have at Oak Flat. That would include restrooms with running water and showers at the campsite. And the park, specially dedicated to climbing, would offer different levels — from beginning to expert.
“For new climbers, we can send them to places where they’re not going to get over their heads,” Ziemann says.
Experienced climbers would face challenges that require rope-holds.
Lawmaker: Park would aid nearby towns
For Rep. Pete Rios, D-23, a state rock climbing park has another upside — economic development for Kearny, Winkelman and other nearby communities. Rios sees new hotels, restaurants and shops catering to park visitors.
“I think it would be huge,” says Rios, a sponsor of last year’s S1550.
But a lot of hurdles remain between “Tamo” the untamed peak and “Tamo” the state climbing park. One is funding.
To build the campgrounds and put in place whatever else is needed to get the park up and running, Ziemann says, “I think our estimate at this point is about six and a half million dollars.”
The bill authorizing the park provided no money.
In addition, Ziemann says, “Our budget has been whacked pretty good.”
Rios, though, remains optimistic that — when the time comes — the Legislature will come up with the money.
He cites the example of Kartchner Caverns, which cost nearly $30 million to develop into a tourist attraction. Parks Department officials appealed to legislative leaders with photographs and field trips to a cave rich in geologic formations. It worked, Rios says.
“That in itself was a selling point for many of us,” Rios said. “I think it will be pretty much the same thing with the rock-climbing park.”
But the Legislature isn’t the only deliberative body that needs to sign off on the deal. Congress must approve the trade as well.
In the 2006 session of Congress, Sen. Jon Kyl and Rep. Rick Renzi of the 1st District each introduced a measure known as the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act. The Republican-sponsored bills languished in the Republican-run Congress. With the Democrats now in charge, bills introduced by Republicans could have even less traction.
But Resolution officials and lobbyists can work with Democrats as well, Rickus suggests.
“We’re talking to the Arizona delegation,” Rickus says. That’s a delegation with two more Democrats and two fewer Republicans than last session.
One topic of discussion — the best way to handle sponsorship of the bill.
In addition, Rickus says, “We’ve been doing a bit of education, and they will be reading that old bill to see if they’re happy with that.”
For the climbers and birders, happy is a relative term.
Birders want Oak Flat, too
One Arizona Audubon official says birders she knows do not want to lose Oak Flat.
“Most of my birders would be disappointed if they don’t have access anymore,” says Tice Supplee, Arizona Audubon Society conservation specialist. “So in my mind, that’s a conversation that could perhaps be had with the Resolution Copper Company, whether or not some sort of access for birders could be provided.”
What birders lose at Oak Flat, though, they would gain in southern Arizona. Near Sonoita, Resolution purchased about 1,000 acres of ranchland. If the land exchange goes through, the cows would be removed to restore habitat more suitable to birds. Specifically, the property would be deeded to the Bureau of Land Management’s Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. That, in turn, would tie into the adjacent Audubon Appleton-Whittle Research Ranch, a bird sanctuary.
The Arizona Audubon Society is not actively backing the deal. But then, it doesn’t oppose the land exchange either, says its executive director, Sam Campana.
Nor does the Nature Conservancy, which has long sought to protect the San Pedro River and surrounding lands in southern Arizona. Here, too, Resolution has offered to help.
“We have been involved with defining some properties with Resolution for mitigation, including properties along the San Pedro,” says Pat Graham, state Nature Conservancy director.
“The San Pedro is an important migratory corridor for birds,” Graham said. “We’ve been working therefore in trying to help protect flows along the San Pedro.”
Toward that end, Resolution purchased a 3,000-acre ranch along the San Pedro River — with the notion of deeding it over to the BLM for conservation. That is, as part of the Oak Flat trade.
The Forest Service itself has a stake in the swap. Resolution bought parcels of private property locked inside the National Forest boundaries. The Forest Service worked closely with Resolution in identifying these inholdings, says Tonto National Forest spokesman Vince Picard.
“We had general meetings where we were looking at different properties,” Picard says. “They’ve really come up with some areas we’re interested in.”
On the other hand, the Forest Service doesn’t want to lose a campground. If Resolution starts drilling for copper, however, the Oak Flat campground will have to pull up stakes. Resolution has offered to pay $500,000 toward relocating and constructing a new campground.
But a Forest Service official told a U.S. Senate subcommittee at the May hearing: “We are… concerned that the $500,000 Resolution copper is directed to pay for the replacement campground is unlikely to be sufficient.”
Rickus says that amount is more than generous. Citing comments made in the subcommittee hearing regarding other land trades, Rickus says: “No organization or company has previously offered to pay a cent. This is a first.”
Another on Resolution’s list of land-swap beneficiaries is the town of Superior. And high on Superior’s list is the town airport. Right now, it’s pretty much an airport in name only, says Superior Mayor Michael O. Hing.
“It’s a dirt runway and has bad tilt to it,” he says.
But the town can’t develop the property as something other than an airport, or it reverts back to the original owner, the federal government. The Oak Flat exchange would remove that restriction, Hing says.
The town would also get title to a 30-acre cemetery now owned by the Forest Service.
Another bonus could be a healthy economy. With a new mine, Superior could pick up where the Magma Copper Mine left off. That finally closed in 1996, putting the town into a slide from which it hasn’t recovered.
Resolution currently has some 55 people on the payroll and an additional 350 workers on contract. The company says it has contributed some $10 million to Superior’s economy. That includes “support for education, environmental work and community development,” a company spokeswoman says in an e-mail.
Rickus, however, recognizes the downside of tying an economy to single industry. More than one Arizona mining town has shriveled when the mine played out.
Hing agrees the town’s economy should be diversified.
“The goal is not to be dependent on the mine,” he says.
With Resolution, the mining operation itself will not require a large labor force, company officials add.
Robotic machinery would do much of the work, though miners would still be needed, descending by elevator deep into the ground. They’ll extract the ore by a technique known as block cave mining. In simple terms, a cavity is dug out below an ore body. It’s loosened by dynamite, then falls into the cavity by its own weight, breaking up into smaller pieces.
It’s then brought to the surface through a separate shaft. The process is rare in Arizona, though Rio Tinto has operated block cave mines elsewhere in the United States, as well as other countries.
Damage done by block cave mining debated
Block cave mining does not create massive open pits. But critics worry that it could do considerable ecological damage, just the same. One big issue is subsidence. As ore bodies collapse below ground, some settling is likely to occur above. But Resolution and its critics disagree over the extent of it.
Williams says there will likely be some settlement or disturbance over the area above the cave. But, at this point, he adds, it’s hard to tell how much.
“Anybody that says there’ll be a surface impact today is guessing, and anybody that says that won’t be is also guessing,” Williams says.
Dief of the Friends of Queen Creek has his own guess. He says the miners could be digging into an ore body that’s estimated to be a half-mile or more in diameter.
That’s a lot of underground ground to cover, he adds.
“That’s going to knock stuff maybe off Apache Leap,” Dief says. “Just based on that much ground moving, there’s going to be significant damage.”
According to the bill before Congress, Apache Leap would be protected from mining. More than 700 acres of Apache Leap would be set aside as a conservation easement.
Rickus adds: “If by mining we would encroach into that easement, we would sterilize that mineral and not mine it.”
Asked what he meant by sterilized, Rickus answers: “From a mining perspective, we ain’t going to mine it.”
For the Apaches, though, the proposed easement doesn’t go far enough.
Apache Leap plays a special role in Apache history. The name comes from a widely held belief that Apache warriors — outnumbered by U.S. Cavalry in 1870 — leaped off the cliffs to their death, rather than surrender. But today’s tribal objections to the proposed mine and the land trade goes deeper than that. San Carlos and White Mountain Apaches claim cultural, religious and traditional ties to Oak Flat. That includes annual harvesting of acorns from the area’s wild oaks.
In an Aug. 28, 2006, letter to The Arizona Republic, then-San Carlos tribal Chairwoman Kathy Kitcheyan writes: “Our position is straightforward and simple. For the Apaches, this area, which includes Oak Flat campground and Apache Leap, belongs to the Gaan, who are our sacred Crowndancers.”
She adds: “Since time immemorial, we have found refuge there and gathered precious medicinal herbs and traditional food there.”
In the letter, Kitcheyan says Resolution “never once sat down with the [tribal] council to discuss the land exchange …”
Resolution officials, however, have a slightly different take on the failure to communicate. They say they offered to talk, but that the tribes have not been open to dialogue.
Both tribes, Rickus adds, “… passed a resolution not to talk to us.”
The Friends of Queen Creek have talked to Resolution, but the group continues to speak out against the Oak Flat trade. The Arizona Mountaineering Club, though, has softened its initial opposition, says Filsinger.
Even within groups, opinions vary. While Filsinger has reservations about the loss of Oak Flat, another club member — Clay Vollmer — sees an upside.
“My take on this is that’s there’s progress — people in China got to have copper,” says Vollmer, a club board member. “We’re talking about jobs for people as opposed to something as trivial and meaningless as rock-climbing areas.”
Then there’s Lon Abbott. He’s a climber who doesn’t have personal stake in Oak Flat. He says he’s more inclined to scale mountains than clamber up boulders. But he knows about the area, having included it in his book: “Weekend Rock Arizona,” published by The Mountaineer Books in Seattle.
Abbott is also a geologist, on staff at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colo.
As he sees it, the proposed Copper State Park would be a bonus for climbers. But it would come at a price.
Abbott says: “You know what you’re giving up, and what you’re giving up is a tremendous asset.”