INTERVIEW: Mine permitting litigation easing as US government clears barriers: Rio Tinto executive

Mine permitting in the US is getting easier as the federal government moves to smooth the process, Vicky Peacey, president and general manager of Resolution Copper, told Platts.

Resolution, a planned underground mine in Arizona owned by Rio Tinto and BHP, is expected to become one of the largest copper mines in North America and could eventually supply more than a quarter of US copper demand.

The project has spent years navigating environmental reviews and legal challenges, including litigation from Native American tribes opposed to the land transfer needed for development. As copper demand accelerates from electrification, artificial intelligence and data center expansion, the need for new mine supply is becoming increasingly urgent.

S&P Global Energy projected a 10 million mt global copper supply shortfall by 2040, while AI-related data center demand alone could reach about 1.4 million mt/year by 2030. Platts spoke with Peacey at the Colorado School of Mines Critical Minerals Symposium in Colorado, about permitting reform, copper market deficits, and the strategic role of domestic mining. Platts is part of S&P Global Energy.

The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Platts: The United States is increasingly emphasizing critical minerals security and supply-chain resilience. From your perspective, what is missing from current federal policy when it comes to building a complete domestic copper supply chain?

Vickey Peacey: Copper is the gateway to critical minerals. At Kennecott [copper mine in Utah], we have at least a dozen critical mineral co-products that can be produced alongside copper. Copper is the primary metal and funds the operation, with established markets, suppliers and customers. Many critical minerals, however, face challenges around market transparency, demand visibility and customer base. Some rare earths, for example, still lack clear market signals, making their economics harder to assess.

While more critical minerals could be recovered from copper operations, the key question is whether sufficient demand and market support exist. Greater federal partnerships, such as through defense stockpiles, could help create that certainty and support further development.

Many mining projects struggle not with geology or financing, but with permitting and social license. What lessons has Resolution learned from years of legal challenges and opposition from Apache groups, and how have those lessons changed the way the company approaches stakeholder engagement?

Projects of this scale require time to build the data needed for a transparent, two-way dialogue with stakeholders. We spent years co-designing the mine plan with the six nearest communities and 11 Native American tribes with historic and ancestral ties to the land. So, the permitting process itself went relatively well. The most delays were from litigation.

But we hope for fewer of those challenges following the Supreme Court's Seven County Infrastructure Coalition decision, which clarified that agencies are given deference on technical analysis under NEPA, while courts focus on legal compliance. That course correction should help reduce permitting delays caused by litigation.

Do you believe the litigation environment is improving, and if so, how might that affect future project development?

Absolutely. We're already seeing it. In fact, it's already playing out on our project. And it's not just about mining. It's about transmission lines and roads and bridges and pipelines. It's all infrastructure that has been caught up in the judicial system.

If Resolution enters production as scheduled, would the existing US smelting system be capable of processing its concentrate, or would the industry need significant new investments in smelting and refining before then?

Fortunately for us, there are two smelters that are operating in the United States. Rio Tinto owns the biggest one, which is part of the Kennecott integrated complex. Today, it is under capacity, so there's excess capacity for additional concentrate in the smelting and refining process at Kennecott.

That would be our plan: to send Rio Tinto's portion of Resolution concentrate to Kennecott and fill that extra capacity in the smelter. Everything we produce: we mine copper, we make concentrate, and it goes into our smelter. We are not sending anything out of the country unless there is some rebuild that we need to do for a period. And that's short-term.

The electrification buildout is expected to drive significant growth in copper demand over the next decade. How confident are you that new mine supply globally, including projects such as Resolution, will be sufficient to avoid structural deficits and higher prices?

Mined copper is really the problem here. We have global overcapacity in smelting and refining. So, we don't have enough new mines coming online. It looks like it reaches a peak in 2030, and then it starts to tip off.

But looking at the United States, we're in a very similar situation. In the 1980s, there were 80 operating copper mines. Today, we have a handful. One of those mines belongs to Rio Tinto, and they're all over 100 years old, and the grades are declining.

We know that demand is going to outpace our supplies. We do have to bring some new mines. It's important to do so if we're going to have enough concentrate to feed the smelters and feed the demand that doesn't seem to be ending.

What has been holding back investments in new copper mines?

It is a combination of things: permitting, litigation, and that kind of risk is difficult to control. Unfortunately, the United States is at the very bottom of the list in terms of how long it takes to bring a new mine online.

That uncertainty associated with permitting and the judicial system is what chilled the investment. But I do think that all three branches of the federal government have made drastic changes. So, all of that combined is now what you're seeing investment in the United States in mining and exploration that we haven't seen in probably 20 years.

As Resolution advances, what are the most important milestones investors, manufacturers and policymakers should be watching over the next three to five years?

Right now, we are still in the data collection phase. We need to do additional exploration drilling of the section of the ore body that has been off limits, and that's going to take about two and a half years. The other thing we need to do is develop the ore body through a series of tunnels so we can collect precision-level engineering data and know exactly where to put infrastructure. After that point, it would probably be time to go bigger.