The group Apache Stronghold is vowing to carry on the fight against a massive copper mining project on land the Apaches hold sacred, after a Supreme Court decision that is expected to let the mine proceed.

An ancient sacred site will be destroyed, replaced by a 2-mile-wide crater,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in dissent.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a Native American group's bid based on religious rights to block Rio Tinto and BHP from gaining control of Arizona land needed to build one of the world's largest copper mines - a project situated on land long used for Apache sacred rituals.