President Trump on Monday ordered the start of construction on a road to the Ambler Mining District in Alaska to increase access to critical minerals, reviving a project that the Biden administration had nixed.

The proposed 211-mile industrial road would run through the Brooks Range foothills and open up commercial mining in a remote area in corthwest Alaska. The road is considered critical for mining in the metals-rich, but isolated, Arctic region to become economically feasible.

“For me, this is 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 we’re talking about,” Mr. Trump said in remarks from the Oval Office, where he signed an executive order to launch construction.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said connecting the region to the rest of Alaska would have far-reaching benefits for America.

“These minerals are absolutely essential to the defense industry,” Mr. Burgum said. “This is one of the richest copper locations in the country … and a single-family home today may have as much as 400 pounds of copper in a home.”

Mr. Trump had approved federal permits for the project during his first administration in 2020. But the Biden administration last year revoked them, arguing that it would damage the environment.

The Biden-era Bureau of Land Management concluded that the road would fragment the habitat of the Western Arctic caribou herd and other wildlife, degrade nearby fish habitats and cause air and water pollution. 

The BLM also said the road would also harm indigenous communities in the area.

“Impacts to subsistence and public health, including stress, subsistence-food insecurity, and potential exposure to toxins from the road, would disproportionately negatively affect low-income and minority populations, specifically Alaska Native villages in and near the project area that depend on the surrounding area for their subsistence lifestyle,” the BLM said at the time.

Mr. Trump blasted his predecessor for stopping the permit.

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

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.