U.S. House votes to repeal ban on mining near Boundary Waters
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The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn a 20-year ban on mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The resolution was introduced by Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota. It uses the Congressional Review Act to nullify the ban imposed by the Biden administration three years ago.
The Biden-era ban covered about 225,000 acres of federal land in the Superior National Forest. The land is south of the Boundary Waters but is in the same watershed.
The move could pave the way for Twin Metals Minnesota to re-apply for state and federal permits to open a proposed underground copper nickel mine outside Ely.
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Mining is already prohibited within the Boundary Waters. But supporters of the mining ban argue that copper nickel mining should not be allowed within the watershed that flows into the wilderness area because of its ecological risks.
They argue that the economic benefits of mining aren’t worth the risks of pollution in the Boundary Waters, a 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.
On the House floor on Wednesday, Stauber argued that the Biden administration’s ban was a “dangerous, purely political decision that disregarded the science and disregarded the facts.”
“This (order) sacrificed thousands of good-paying union jobs that would support families for generations, along with billions of dollars of revenue for our schools and state and federal governments and, most importantly, our nation's mineral security,” Stauber said.
But Democrats noted that Twin Metals is a subsidiary of the giant Chilean mining firm Antofagasta, which likely would send most of the minerals to China.
“There's no guarantee that the precious minerals … produced from this mine would actually stay in the U.S. and benefit the American economy or American national security at all,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California.
Opponents also argued that the risk of pollution to the Boundary Waters isn’t worth the potential economic benefits.
“This is about water, the world's most critical natural resource. And it must be protected, not only for today, but for future generations,” said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota. “In my opinion, some places are just too precious to mine.”
