Queen Creek Mining Battle

Since 2006 there has been a license in place that has allowed climbers/canyoneers to access the Queen Creek Climbing areas of Atlantis, Upper and Lower Devil’s Canyon as well as the Five Pools area even though the area is owned by Resolution Copper Mine (RCM).

Unfortunately, The temporary license has expired. We assume that this means RCM is allowing people to climb on their property and you can continue to do that until they say you can’t. The license was revocable at will by Resolution, so that was also the case when the license was in place. The license merely served as a written acknowledgment of Resolution’s willingness to allow climbing/access to continue.

The license was allowed to expire because the new license was bundled into the latest “offer” from RCM.

Under Resolution Copper’s latest proposal, some areas, including the Mine Area and Euro Dog Valley, as well as the Magma Mine Road, which provides access to these areas and to the Lower Devils climbing area, could be closed almost immediately.

To stay informed you can follow or join the Queen Creek Coalition here.