The Biden administration has suspended a water and wetlands permit for the proposed Ambler mining road in Alaska, a month and a half after the Bureau of Land Management rejected the contentious project.
In a letter sent this month, the Army Corps of Engineers informed the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority that a previously issued permit to fill in approximately 1,400 acres of wetlands was suspended, “effective immediately.” The authority is a state-owned development bank pursuing the project.
A 211-mile industrial access road, the Ambler Road Project is intended to support the development of new mines for minerals like zinc and copper in northwestern Alaska and benefit the area’s economy.
Conservation groups and some tribes in the region have sought to stop the proposal, which they say would irreparably harm the sensitive Arctic landscape. The road would cross part of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and could also speed up the thawing of permafrost and harm wildlife like caribou, the Bureau of Land Management concluded this year.
