Interior to deny industrial road in the Alaskan wilderness

The Biden administration is expected to deny permission for a mining company to build a 211-mile industrial road through fragile Alaskan wilderness, handing a victory to environmentalists in an election year when the president wants to underscore his credentials as a climate leader and conservationist.

The Interior Department intends to announce as early as this week that there should be “no action” on the federal land where the road known as the Ambler Access Project would be built, according to two people familiar with the decision who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the decision. A formal denial of the project would come later this year, they said.

The road was essential to reach what is estimated to be a $7.5 billion copper deposit buried under ecologically sensitive land. There are currently no mines in the area and no requests for permits have been filed with the government; the road was a first step.

Blocking the industrial road would be an enormous victory for opponents who have argued for years that it would threaten wildlife as well as Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting and fishing. David Krause, the interim executive director of the National Audubon Society’s Alaska office, said protecting the wilderness around the Ambler area is a “huge deal.”

“This is one of the most ecologically intact and functional landscapes on the planet,” Krause said.

Ambler Metals, the mining venture behind the proposed road, has said the copper it seeks is critical to make wind turbines, photovoltaic cells and transmission lines needed for wind, solar and other renewable energy. Kaleb Froehlich, the managing director of Ambler Metals, said the company was “stunned” that the Interior Department would deny the project.

As proposed, the Ambler project would consist of a $350 million twolane, all-season gravel road that would run through the Brooks Range foothills and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, crossing 11 rivers and thousands of streams before it reached the site of a future mine.