President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday approving construction on an access road to the Ambler mining district in Alaska, rolling back environmental restrictions imposed by the Biden administration. 

Supporters of the projects have called it essential to reach copper, zinc, and cobalt deposits in order to boost the domestic supply chain of critical minerals. 

“This was something that should have been long operating and making billions of dollars for our country and supplying a lot of energy and minerals and everything else,” Trump said during an event in the Oval Office Monday afternoon. 

The president referred to the initial federal permits issued for the Ambler Access Project during his first administration in 2020, and criticized former President Joe Biden for suspending it last year. 

“They undid it and wasted a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort,” Trump said. ‘And now we’re starting again, and this time, we have plenty of time to get it done and it’s going to be done properly.” 

The Ambler Access Project is a 211 mile long road in north central Alaska that is intended to establish the Ambler Mining District. 

“President Trump, when he said, ‘drill, baby drill,’ he also was ‘mine, baby, mine.’ We’ve got to get back in the mining business,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday, emphasizing the importance of reducing China’s dominance over critical minerals. 

Burgum said that easing access to the mineral-rich area will help the U.S. win the artificial intelligence arms race with China and “to prosper as a country.” 

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Ownership of the road is expected to be split between the state of the Alaska, the federal government, and “native Alaska corporations,” Burgum said.

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