Sept 11 (Reuters) - A Native American group on Wednesday

asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Rio Tinto and BHP

from gaining access to Arizona land needed to build one

of the world's largest copper mines, a last-ditch legal move in

a long-running case pitting religious rights against the energy

transition.

Apache Stronghold, a nonprofit group comprised of Arizona's

San Carlos Apache tribe and conservationists, asked the court to

overturn a March ruling from a sharply divided San

Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the

federal government to swap acreage with the mining companies for

their Resolution Copper project.

The appeal to the nine justices was delivered in person

by a courier after the Apache held a ceremony of prayer and

dancing on the court's steps in Washington, the culmination of a

months-long caravan from their Arizona reservation to the

capital.

At least four justices would need to agree to hear the

appeal, in which Apache Stronghold and their attorneys at the

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty contend the government would

be violating the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of

religion if the mine is developed.

If the court agrees to hear the case, it could hold oral

arguments in its term which begins next month and potentially

issue a decision by next June.

The dispute centers on the federally owned Oak Flat

Campground, known as Chi'chil Biłdagoteel in the Apache language

and where many Apache worship their deities. The site sits atop

a reserve of more than 40 billion pounds

(18.1 million metric tons)

of copper, a crucial component of electric vehicles and

nearly every electronic device.

If a mine is built, it would create a crater 2 miles

(3 km)

wide and 1,000 feet

(304 m)

deep that would destroy that worship site.

In 2014, Congress and then-President Barack Obama

approved a complex deal to give Rio Tinto the land. President

Joe Biden

froze the land swap

after assuming office in 2021.

The U.S. Department of Justice, controlled by Biden, has

argued in court that the government has the right to give away

its land to whomever it chooses, regardless of the religious

implications.

"That legal argument is astonishingly broad and harmful

to Native Americans and people of all faiths," said Luke

Goodrich, a Becket attorney who is leading the appeal.

Rio Tinto said the case "does not present any question

worthy of Supreme Court review" given the 9th Circuit's ruling,

which it supported.

"This case is about the government's right to pursue

national interests with its own land, an unremarkable and

longstanding proposition that the Supreme Court and other courts

have consistently reaffirmed," said a Rio Tinto spokesperson.

BHP, which owns 45% of the project to Rio Tinto's 55%,

declined to comment.

Both companies have spent more than $2 billion on the

project without producing any copper.

The date of the appeal was due to a fluke of the court's

calendar and not meant to coincide with the anniversary of the

Sept. 11 attacks, attorneys said.

Still, the date does coincide with the four-year

anniversary of when

Rio Tinto fired its former CEO

for inadequate consultation with Indigenous groups in

Australia.