By Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted an appeal court's decision to temporarily block federal officials from completing a land transfer needed for Rio Tinto and BHP to develop Arizona's Resolution Copper project.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday that the transfer - which had been slated for Tuesday - should be halted while the court weighs a request from the San Carlos Apache tribe to block the project for religious, cultural and environmental reasons.

It was the first time any court has ruled in favor of the Apache or their allies in more than five years of myriad legal maneuvers against Resolution, slated to become one of the world's largest supplies of a metal used to build nearly every electronic device.

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