President Trump signed an executive order on Oct. 6 to facilitate the use of Alaska resources to construct the 200-mile Ambler Road deep into northwestern Alaska.
On the same day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the United States will acquire a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals, a Canadian-based mining company that possesses claims in the area.
The $36 million investment by the United States will boost Trilogy Metals’ ability to conduct mining exploration in the Ambler Mining District. Trilogy is a mining exploration and development company with a 50% interest in Alaska-based Ambler Metals LLC – a company that has a 100% interest in the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in northwestern Alaska.
The President’s decision marks an historic day for Alaska’s self-determination, and represents another promise delivered.” – Gov. Dunleavy
Burgum explained that the U.S. investment in Trilogy is aimed at securing the acquisition of “critical mineral supplies” for the nation. It also marks the end of the Biden-era blockade on the long-awaited development.
The deal includes an agreement for the U.S. to purchase an additional 7.5% of Trilogy.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy praised Trump’s decision to reverse Biden-era restrictions and approval of the Ambler Road, which will open access to a vast supply of minerals in the Brooks Range. These include copper (used in power grid infrastructure, data centers and national defense), cobalt (used in electric vehicle batteries), zink (used in galvanizing steel, solar and wind power) and germanium (used in semiconductor chips). The Ambler Mining District also indicates rich deposits of gold and silver.
The Ambler Road will be made of gravel in order to minimize environmental impact and it will include two bridges.
“President Donald J. Trump has unleashed new development opportunities with the Ambler Road Project creating new jobs for Alaskans and safe, secure access to the strategic minerals America needs,” Dunleavy posted to his official Facebook page.
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich echoed this sentiment.
“Today, President Trump moved forward to unlock the critical resources of the Ambler mining district … Alaska now has the ability to build our promised road to important resources,” he stated. “This has been a priority of our office since day one, and I am thrilled to see this important milestone. The President’s decision marks an historic day for Alaska’s self-determination, and represents another promise delivered.”
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan thanked Trump for “rolling back the Biden administration’s egregious and lawless denial of a right-of-way for the Ambler Access Project.”
He said Trump’s executive order will reduce U.S. dependence on minerals from China.
“I just spoke by phone with the President about this important announcement, and he reiterated his strong commitment to advancing the Ambler Access Project, and so many other important projects for our state, including the King Cove Road and the Alaska LNG Project,” Sullivan stated.
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Trump’s executive order directs the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and US Army Corps of Engineers to reissue permits that are needed to build the Ambler Road.
“This was something that should have been long operating and making billions of dollars for our country and supplying a lot of energy and minerals and everything else,” Trump said on Oct. 6 at the Oval Office.
The effort to build the Ambler Road is a decades-long endeavor. In 1980, Congress guaranteed access to the Ambler District in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. That law required the Secretary of the Interior to permit access from the Ambler Mining District to the Alaska Pipeline Haul Road.
At the end of Trump’s first term, in 2020, the road was finally approved, following years of debates, environmental reviews and other obstacles. However, the Biden administration revoked the 2020 approval and ultimately denied the project in 2024.
With Trump’s latest executive order, Biden’s decision is reversed.
10 Comments
Alaskans Thanks You, President Trump.
This is long overdue. It has been fought against tooth and nail by the very people it would most benefit. Let’s get everyone off welfare ( except large corporations, of course. )
WOOHOO!
didn’t need dunleavy!
And Lisa is quiet about this. She doesn’t want to upset her liberal voting base. The damage this woman has/is doing to this country just to maintain her power. Thank you President Trump and one last request; Help us unseat Lisa Murkowski!
Let’s get pushing dirt. Noticing must read Ak John Faulkner is bringing up nonsense from the left enviro Nazis. Thanks John real cool. Let’s propagate a bunch of un American let’s buy China shit. Even mentioning these enviro nazi groups is doing a disservice to Alaska.
you’d think a dozen years of analysis and thousands of public comments including from the locals and, as a result, we have all the information to make the correct decision to not proceed, that Alaskans would say no to Federal Government overreach and meddling, especially from the corrupt Drano man Trump.
im hearing rummers that we alaskans will pay for the road and that we will not be alowwed to use is in any way. all that space!
dose this mean that some of it’s profits wound be going into the PFD fund, its part of Alaskas resources?
Teena, that is lefty enviro propaganda. The road construction is mostly paid for with loans from AIDEA, which while a state-owned corporation, accepts $0 in public funds- it is self sufficient as a business entity. The only government money involved in the project is the ownership stake that the Feds bought in Trilogy Metals ($35.6 million). Since Trilogy Metals will have to pay for it’s part of the road, it could be argued that that small ownership stake be the Feds is public money, but that’s a bit of a stretch.
This also appears to be, at least in part, the fulfillment of a prophecy by the Inupiaq prophet Manillaq, who had revelations of Ambler becoming a large city, relatively speaking. Don’t laugh, he also predicted the arrival of airplanes and gas-powered boats.