An irreplaceable swath of America’s public lands estate could be at the mercy of a Canadian mining company’s industrial road-building equipment in the not-too-distant future. A unique partnership between Trilogy Metals and the U.S. government is a driving force behind a massive 211-mile-long road construction project across the southern edges of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The Ambler Road, Vancouver-based Trilogy says, is needed to access the Ambler Mining District, where, conceivably, the mining company would reap the benefits of the gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, gallium, cobalt, and other minerals reportedly found beneath the district, which is located due west of Wiseman, where the road would begin at the confluence of the Dalton Highway.

As of October, the U.S. government is a 10-percent shareholder in Trilogy, thanks to an unprecedented $35.6 million investment announced by the Trump administration that not only provides sweeping approval for the controversial road-construction project, but also “includes warrants to purchase an additional 7.5 percent of the company,” a White House fact sheet claims. The investment, when it was announced in October,briefly upped Trilogy’s stock value by a factor of five — it has since come down to a price of $4.51 a share at this writing, which is still more than twice what it was worth before the Trump administration intervened and injected the company with both capital and the permission to move forward with the Ambler Road’s construction.

The construction approval, and the government’s investment in the Canadian mining company, come after years of back-and-forth between mining interests, the U.S. Department of Interior under three presidents, conservation interests, indigenous groups, and the state of Alaska. In June 2024, the Biden administration culminated a years-long policy process by choosing a “no action” alternative to the proposal to build the road into Alaska’s backcountry.

Trump’s move to defunct Biden’s flaccid policy came as no surprise in October — it was just the latest in a series of moves that turned some of the most-intact public lands left in the shared American estate over to industrial interests. Since taking office, Trump has deleted mineral extraction protections from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Western Arctic Reserve (known by the oil and gas industry as the National Petroleum Reserve).

The Ambler Road project and the subsequent development of the Ambler Mining District, are poised to be the next domino to fall in what appears to be a calculated attempt to provide extraction access for mult-billion-dollar mining and drilling companies to public lands that belong to every single American by right of birth or citizenship.

What’s at stake?

Initially, the impacts of this decision will be shouldered by a massive, 211-mile-long stretch of wild Alaska. The road, which will connect to the Dalton Highway some 270 miles north of Fairbanks and enable ore-laden, industrial-grade mining vehicles to truck the minerals to market, would cross 11 major river systems and literally thousands of smaller rivers, fishable streams, and sensitive wetlands. According to Hunters and Anglers for the Brooks Range — a predictable amalgamation of 87 conservation groups and businesses invested in the hunting and fishing industry led by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership — the road itself would cost upwards of $1.4 billion. Its construction would include 48 bridges, and nearly 3,000 culverts, many of which would span across or constrict aquatic habitat vital to Arctic grayling, Dolly Varden, inconnu, chum and king salmon, and other native fish, not to mention important habitat for everything from Dall sheep, moose, grizzly and black bears, wolves, and caribou. In all, the road corridor would consume about 200,000 acres of public lands — and the road would bisect the currently roadless southern stretch of Gates of the Arctic National Park.

But, for hunters and anglers who can at least divine public access as a silver lining to other Alaskan industrial projects of the past — like the Dalton Highway that parallels the Alaska oil pipeline, for instance — the Ambler Road offers no access upside. It would be the sole domain of the mining industry. It would be a private, industrial-grade road providing access to the Ambler mining district’s four proposed open-pit mines. Early estimates claim that the Ambler Road would handle 168 daily trips for ore haulers each day, and up to 238 additional trips per day on the Dalton Highway. It would, without a doubt, permanently alter the wild character of the southern Brooks Range and carry with it the toxic potential for pollution that accompanies open-pit mining for many lifetimes to come.

According to HAFBR, once the four open-pit mines are constructed, the project’s footprint will double to more than 400,000 acres, all in the name of reducing the dependence on foreign minerals needed for America’s security (keeping in mind that the minerals found in the Ambler Mining District are not of the “rare earth” variety — rare earth elements like cerium and dysprosium are not listed under Ambler’s potential inventory).

Who benefits?

“The permits for this road have been held for years due to protracted litigation,” the White House said in a statement in October. “The president has finally allowed this project to go forward to support the administration’s energy dominance agenda.”

Why then, would most of the minerals extracted by Trilogy and, perceivably, other mining interests, be bound for Asia for smelting? The answers are simple. There are no smelters in Alaska of the scale needed to handle vast amounts of ore, so it’s not really about stylish catch-phrases like “unlocking Alaska’s mineral potential.” It’s about money. And, if you’re even a modest skeptic, it’s also about returning favors.

The Ambler Road offers no access upside. It would be the sole domain of the mining industry. It would be a private, industrial-grade road providing access to the Ambler mining district’s four proposed open-pit mines.

The most obvious example of this, when it comes to Ambler, is the reward billionaire Trump megadonor and enthusiastic supporter John Paulson reaped when Trump announced the government’s investment in Trilogy Metals. Paulson owns 8.7 percent of Trilogy. His investment in the company ballooned 245 percent, when the market opened on Oct. 7, the day after Trump’s announcement directing all involved federal agencies to “promptly issue such authorizations as are necessary with respect to the establishment of the Ambler Road Project.”

If Paulson’s name sounds familiar, it’s likely because he was named by U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, as one of the billionaires featured prominently in convicted sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein’s list of contacts.

In addition to Paulson, the “usual suspects” stand in line to reap the fortunes that come with mineral extraction. Teck Resources, which has the rights to two of the four planned open-pit mines in the Ambler Mining District, stands to benefit greatly, as will South32, an Australian mining company partnered with Trilogy on the Ambler project.

The Brooks Range in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (photo: Danielle Brigida/USFWS).

An already taxed landscape

The ongoing effects of climate change are already being felt in the southern Brooks Range. With Arctic and northern landscapes warming at a much faster rate than the rest of the world, this corner of Alaska is on the front lines of the climate crisis.

King, chum, and coho salmon runs in the Yukon-Kukoskswim basin are on life support, thanks at least in part to their bycatch by cod trawlers, and less than ideal spawning conditions thanks to warming inland waters. The western Arctic caribou herd has declined by 66 percent in just the last 20 years, likely due to climate-induced changes to winter range habitat.

Warming waters have also spurred permafrost melting in the Brooks Range – the melting frost just beneath the ground is releasing heavy metals that were locked in ice, resulting in rust-tinged water entering once-clear streams. The impacts of this are still being determined

Climatically and environmentally, the addition of a 211-mile ore-hauling road and four open-pit mines won’t do the region any favors. For subsistence hunters and anglers in the indigenous population, the Ambler Road, and the Pandora’s box that it opens up, is another stark blow to a landscape already in crisis.

What happens next?

Presently, the road-construction project is in the “pre-construction” process, according to the Ambler Access Project, which means the route is being finalized, construction plans drawn up, etc. Federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers are reactivating permits that have gathered dusk since BIden’s “no-action” alternative in 2024, and construction would appear to be imminent.

But that doesn’t mean the Ambler Road is a sure thing. An ongoing lawsuit from a host of environmental groups is before the Alaska District Court — the suit alleges that the government agencies that approved the road-construction project violated a host of federal laws, from the Clean Water Act to the National Environmental Policy Act.

“In making their final decisions, BLM, the Corps, and (National Park Service) failed to comply with numerous federal statutes and regulations that impose important protections for the lands, wildlife, communities, and aquatic resources of the region,” the lawsuit reads. “These laws require thorough, transparent, and careful analysis of the significant impacts of the agencies’ decisions and mandate that the agencies protect public resources and values within the project area.”

The court case withstanding, however, it does appear that the Ambler Road and the mining project it will eventually enable are on track for eventual construction. Hunters and Anglers for the Brooks Range continues to mobilize against the Ambler project.

“We must maintain a few special places where future generations of hunters and anglers can experience genuine solitude and carry forward our outdoor traditions,” the group’s website reads. “That’s why the hunt-fish community is speaking up to prevent the proposed Ambler Industrial Road, a risky proposal that threatens the very qualities that we value most about the Brooks Range.”