A federal judge in Alaska is expected to rule soon on a move by the Biden administration to delay a controversial mining highway by ordering a new environmental review, Kallanish reports.

US District Judge Sharon Gleason will rule on the voluntary remand request made by the US Department of the Interior on the planned Ambler Access Project, a 211-mile industrial highway through the Brooks Range to planned mining developments in northwest Alaska. The proposed remand had been announced last February.

Ambler Metals, a partnership between Trilogy Metals and South32, says it will not oppose the new review if all project permits remain valid and the review be completed within nine months. The final decision on the so-called Ambler Road must then be filed within 30 days of any new decision, Ambler says in court filings.

Interior has filed a motion to remand the project’s final Environmental Impact Statement and to suspend the right-of-way permits for the highway, in a move blasted by Alaska politicians and labour groups. Interior says that errors were made, particularly in failing to deal with road impacts on local tribes, and those errors must be fixed.

The $350 million road would provide access to the planned copper-zinc-gold-cobalt-lead-silver mining in the Ambler Mining District. The mining-only road would run along the south side of the Brooks Range, extending west from the Dalton Highway and run along the Kobuk River. It would be funded by the company and the state of Alaska.

The parties must decide by the end of 2024 on building the roadway in three phases over four to six years. Ambler Metals and Alaska had planned to spend up to $30.8m in 2022 on highway pre-development work.