The Latest Breaking News from Resolution Copper

The U.S. Forest Service has told a federal court it is not sure when it could approve a land swap allowing Rio Tinto Plc to develop the Resolution Copper mine in Arizona, a surprising reversal that boosts several Native American groups opposed to the project.

Resolution Copper is one court ruling away from destroying one of the Apaches’ holiest sites.

Imagine that a giant mining company announces plans to dig down deep beneath the Vatican to extract precious minerals, collapsing St. Peter’s Basilica into a cavernous pit. While this unlikely scenario would be met with near-universal outrage, it’s effectively what’s happening in southeastern Arizona, to almost no national scrutiny.

Native American tribal members fighting plans for an enormous copper mine on land they consider sacred say they are increasingly worried U.S. officials will move forward on the project even as they await a federal appellate court ruling in the case