Trump administration moves to reverse mining ban near Boundary Waters
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The Trump administration and northeast Minnesota Republican Congressman Pete Stauber are taking action to end a 20-year mining ban near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that was imposed three years ago under former President Joe Biden.
The move could pave the way for Twin Metals Minnesota, which is a subsidiary of the giant Chilean mining firm Antofagasta, to re-apply for state and federal permits to open a proposed underground mine for copper, nickel and other metals outside Ely and just a few miles south of the federally protected wilderness area.
The action, first reported by Reuters, appears to be based on a procedural oversight by the Biden administration.
The 20-year moratorium imposed under the Biden administration bans mining activity over about 350 square miles of federal land in the Superior National Forest south of the Boundary Waters but within the same watershed as the wilderness.
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Such “mineral withdrawals,” as they’re known, are allowed under the 40-year old Federal Land Policy and Management Act, or FLPMA.
Under the law, the Secretary of the Interior is required to notify Congress of such a withdrawal — a step Stauber’s office says the Biden administration failed to take.
Now, the Trump administration is taking that step, the difference being that Congress is now controlled by Republicans. And President Donald Trump has repeatedly signaled his intentions to overturn the mining ban.
Stauber, who has already proposed legislation to overturn the mining moratorium, plans to introduce a separate resolution Monday to nullify the ban. He says if both Congress and Trump approve it within 60 days, a similar moratorium could not be put in place by future administrations.
“This dangerous and illegal mining ban was thrust upon my constituents and our way of life in Northern Minnesota and put our nation’s mineral security in jeopardy,” Stauber said in a statement.
“Northern Minnesota mined the iron ore that won this nation two World Wars and we will mine the copper, nickel, and other critical minerals that will allow the United States to compete and win in the 21st Century,” Stauber concluded.
The federal mining ban has been the subject of a contentious partisan tug of war spanning the past four presidential administrations.
President Barack Obama first proposed withdrawing the land near the Boundary Waters from mining activity in 2016 near the end of his second term. Trump in his first term stopped that process. Then Biden instituted the ban. Now Trump in his second term seems to be on the cusp of repealing it.
“Pete Stauber is once again seeking to endanger Minnesota’s most pristine waters just to line the pockets of a Chilean mining conglomerate,” said Sen. Tina Smith, who has introduced legislation to permanently ban mining in the area. “I will fight this effort as strongly as I can. Not this mine, not this place,” Smith said.
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum of St. Paul — who has introduced legislation similar to Smith’s in the House — also blasted Stauber’s “questionable scheme,” saying the action ignores public input that overwhelmingly supported the mining ban.
Mining is already not allowed within the Boundary Waters. But those in favor of the mining ban argue that copper nickel mining, which poses more severe ecological risks than iron ore mining, should also not be allowed within the watershed that flows into the wilderness area.
They argue that the economic benefits of mining aren’t worth the risks of pollution in the Boundary Waters — a fragile, 1 million acre wilderness of interconnected lakes and rivers that hosts more than 150,000 visitors a year from around the world and supports a thriving tourism and recreation-based economy.
But that ban also limits exploration and mining of a significant portion of the Duluth Complex, one of the largest undeveloped deposits of copper, nickel, cobalt and other platinum-group metals in the world.
Those metals are critical for the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries, electric transmission lines and other technologies crucial to a high-tech economy.
Industry proponents argue that modern mines in Minnesota could both safeguard the environment and produce important minerals, while at the same time injecting potentially billions of dollars into the region.
If the mining ban is revoked, it’s anticipated that the Trump administration would return federal mineral leases to Twin Metals that were revoked by the Biden administration.
Twin Metals could then resubmit mining plans. But any mine would require approval from state officials, following an environmental review and permitting process that takes several years to complete.
