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(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court has ruled that the federal government may transfer thousands of acres in Arizona to Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) Plc for a copper mine in a land swap deal, upholding a lower court’s ruling and rejecting a request from Native Americans who said the land has religious and cultural import.
The 2-1 ruling from the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, issued late Friday night, essentially defers to a 2014 decision made by the U.S. Congress and then-President Barack Obama to give the land to Rio for its Resolution Copper project.
