WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct 6, 2025– President Donald Trump has swung open the gates to Alaska’s vast mineral riches with an executive order signed Monday, overturning a Biden-era rejection of the long-stalled Ambler Road project and igniting fresh clashes between economic boosters and environmental guardians.
The 211-mile gravel artery, snaking through the remote Brooks Range, would punch access into the Ambler Mining District, a geological jackpot brimming with copper, zinc, cobalt, and other critical minerals valued at upwards of $1 trillion. Trump’s move scraps the Interior Department’s 2024 denial under President Joe Biden, which flagged threats to caribou migration routes and traditional subsistence hunting grounds sacred to the Arctic Village Gwich’in and Venetie tribes. “America’s energy independence starts with digging where the treasures are,” Trump declared in a White House statement, framing the reversal as a cornerstone of his “America First” resource revival.
This isn’t Trump’s first rodeo on the issue. It dovetails with a January 2025 executive order slapping a moratorium on Biden’s mining curbs, aimed at ramping up domestic production to outflank global rivals. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum hailed it as a “big milestone” in the escalating AI arms race, where China gobbles up 60% of the world’s rare earth processing. “We’re not just building a road; we’re forging the supply chains that keep our tech edge sharp,” Burgum said, spotlighting how the haul could fuel electric vehicles, defense systems, and semiconductors.
Backed by heavyweights like Trilogy Metals and Rio Tinto, the project promises a windfall of 1,000 jobs in bush Alaska, a lifeline for rural economies battered by boom-and-bust cycles. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a staunch proponent, cheered the green light as a national security coup. “This counters China’s stranglehold on minerals we can’t live without,” she posted on X, underscoring the fast-track directives Trump issued to the Interior Department back in March.
But the cheers from industry echo hollow for green groups, who slammed the decision as a reckless handout to corporate diggers. The Sierra Club vowed swift lawsuits, decrying the road’s potential scar on 2.5 million acres of untouched wilderness. “This isn’t progress—it’s a bulldozer through the heart of America’s last wild frontiers,” said executive director Jon Devine, warning of irreversible damage to fragile ecosystems and indigenous ways of life.
As permitting hurdles clear, the Ambler saga underscores the high-stakes tug-of-war over America’s untapped bounty: a path to prosperity for some, a Pandora’s box for others. With global demand for green tech minerals skyrocketing, Trump’s bet is clear—drill now, debate later. Whether it pays off in ore or outrage remains the trillion-dollar question hanging over the frozen tundra.