(Bloomberg) -- South32 Ltd. is optimistic the incoming Trump administration will open up access to a copper-rich region in northwest Alaska, where the Australian miner has development rights.

If the building of a controversial industrial road to the Ambler Mining District is approved, South32 and its venture partner Trilogy Metals Inc. would be able to mine high-grade copper from an already identified deposit and ramp up exploration work for new resources, according to Chief Executive Officer Graham Kerr.

“It’s a long-term play, but in a couple of years we’ll know the size of the resource,” he said in an interview. “The challenge is in exploring up there, because the seasonal window is narrow,” but discovering another big deposit could be a “game-changer,” he said.

The US Interior Department blocked the development of the proposed 211-mile (340-kilometer) road earlier this year on environmental grounds, opting to protect 28 million hectares of federal land from minerals development. Plans to immediately approve it are outlined in documents from Project 2025 - a conservative blueprint for a second Trump term that he distanced himself from during the campaign. 

Major new copper finds are rare, and have become highly coveted by miners in anticipation of surging demand for the red metal in the coming years due to the energy transition. Kerr said the geology in Ambler indicated clusters of sizable resources. Shares in Trilogy almost doubled last month following Trump’s election victory.

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