President Donald Trump has again approved plans for the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road through wilderness lands – including those owned by two Alaska Native regional firms – to reach a lucrative mining site.
The road and the project itself “is something that should’ve been long operating and making billions of dollars for our country and supplying a lot of energy and minerals,” Trump said on Monday in an Oval Office ceremony, giving his stamp of approval again for the project he approved in his first term. When former President Joe Biden took over, however, he gave it a thumbs down.
The road would run from the Dalton Highway nearly to Kotzebue, with construction costs covered by fees paid by users.
Alaska’s all-Republican congressional delegation hailed the move, backed by the Alaska Industrial and Export Authority (AIDEA).
The strategic partnership with Ambler Metals “will provide a $35.6 million investment to advance mining exploration in the world-class Ambler Mining District in exchange for an equity stake in Trilogy Metals, which is part of the Ambler Metals joint venture,” they said.
“The president’s re-approval will unlock a world-class mining district, deliver quality-of-life benefits for communities in the region, and help grow Alaska’s economy,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “It will also improve our national security by strengthening our mineral security and enabling us to produce more of our most important resources here at home.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan thanked the Trump administration for “rolling back the Biden administration’s egregious and lawless denial of a right-of-way for the Ambler Access Project.” Sullivan said the road would mean jobs for workers and for national security by reducing the nation’s mineral dependence on China.
“By advancing this access, we are creating new opportunities for Alaskans while strengthening America’s supply chain and reducing dependence on foreign adversaries for our critical mineral needs,” said U.S. Rep. Nick Begich. “I applaud the president’s decision to support this appeal.”
Ambler Metals is a joint venture of Trilogy Metals of Vancouver, Canada and South32 of Australia – a globally diversified mining and metals firm in Perth, Western Australia. Trilogy Metals holds a 50% interest in the Ambler Metals LLC joint venture, which owns the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Alaska, a rich deposit of copper and zinc.
The U.S. government recently paid $35.6 million to acquire a 10% stake of Trilogy Metals shares. The New York Times noted on Tuesday that the Trump administration is now also taking a 10% equity share in Trilogy Metals.
While not unique, it was only recently that the U.S. government began purchasing a stake in publicly traded mining firms, primarily under the 2025 Trump administration. Before 2025, no administration had ever acquired equity stakes in mining firms on this scale.
Veteran journalist Dermot Cole wrote on Monday that the U.S. government buying into Trilogy Metals has proven “an overnight windfall for Trilogy” and predicted that the AIDEA would soon announce that it would borrow money to build the Ambler Road, a move “that will make the company more valuable, whether it ever turns a shovel of dirt or not.”
While the Alaska delegation is supportive of the project, it faces strong opposition from environmental entities.
That includes the Wilderness Society, which on Monday voiced its opposition to the road “through one of Alaska’s most wild, pristine places, as well as announcing the investment of millions of taxpayer dollars in the foreign development company behind this project.”
The Wilderness Society noted that over a dozen Alaska Native governments, as well as the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group, have previously submitted resolutions and letters opposing the Ambler Road project.
The Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), based in Fairbanks, expressed their opposition on Monday in a statement on social media, saying they are “deeply disappointed by this decision.”
“The Ambler Road threatens to open a path for industrial mining through the heart of the Brooks Range and across lands that are vital to caribou migration, fish habitat, and the subsistence practices that sustain our people,” the Tanana Chiefs said. “Once again, the federal government has prioritized outside interests over the voices of the Alaska Native Tribes who live in and depend on these lands.”
TCC Chief and Chair Brian Ridley called Trump’s decision “a direct affront to the voices of Alaska Native people.”
“It places corporate and extractive agendas over our rights, our lands, and our future,” Ridley said. “Despite this, we stand firm: We will not be silenced. We will continue to fight, to resist, and to protect our lands and waters for the generations who come after us.”
According to the Alaska Beacon, the road is anticipated to wind through more than 10 miles of land owned by Doyon, Limited – a regional Alaska Native firm based in Fairbanks, which has not said to date whether is supports or opposes the project.
NANA Regional Corp., with offices in Kotzebue and Anchorage, owns another 20 miles of land that the Ambler Road would run through. The Beacon noted that NANA President and CEO John Lincoln said that NANA “appreciates the Trump Administration and Gov. Dunleavy’s support for economic development in Alaska and their work toward stabilizing the federal permitting process,” but that he declined to express support for the road.
NANA ceased involvement in the project last year due to concerns about how the project was being managed, according to the Beacon, and Lincoln said that position still stands.
This is not the first time NANA has turned their thumbs down on a proposed road from the Alaska Interior to the Kotzebue region.
In the early 1970s, under former President Richard Nixon’s administration, Interior Secretary Rogers Morton flew to Kotzebue to meet with top officials of NANA to promote a road from the Fairbanks area to Kotzebue. NANA officials expressed concern that opening up the area, where many of their shareholders relied on subsistence hunting and fishing, would bring sport hunters and sport anglers who would compete for their shareholders’ food supply. The visit ended with them saying “no” to Morton.
The project has also faced legal challenges, including litigation still before the U.S. District Court in Anchorage regarding a federal right-of-way grant issued in 2021 by the first Trump administration. Entities challenging that right-of-way include the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, National Audubon Society, National Parks Conservation Association, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and Winter Wildlands Alliance.
