A federal judge is Alaska is refusing to budge and is continuing to back a new federal review of a proposed mining highway in northwest Alaska, Kallanish reports.

US District Judge Sharon Gleason has refused to reconsider her earlier decision from last month that grants the US Department of the Interior a voluntary remand to reconsider the previously issued record of decision that had approved a contentious 211-mile mining highway known as the Ambler Access Road Project. Gleason has suspended but not terminated the project permits and preliminary design work is allowed to continue.

A new federal review has been ordered. Interior said it had identified deficiencies in the agency’s review of the project. Interior says that errors were made, particularly in failing to deal with road impacts on local tribes, and those errors must be fixed.

The 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 Ambler Metals 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, a joint venture between Trilogy Metals and South32, and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority had earlier approved a plan to proceed with highway pre-development work this summer.