Senate moves to lift Boundary Waters mining ban

The Senate voted 50-49 on April 16 to erase federal mining protections on land upstream of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters and send the measure to President Donald Trump. (apnews.com) The measure is House Joint Resolution 140, introduced by Representative Pete Stauber of Minnesota under the Congressional Review Act. It nullifies Public Land Order 7917, the 2023 order that withdrew about 225,504 acres of Superior National Forest land from federal mineral and geothermal leasing for 20 years. (congress.gov; federalregister.gov) Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith held the Senate floor for hours before the vote in an effort to delay or stop it. The House had already approved the same resolution 214-208 on January 21, leaving Trump’s signature as the final step. (cbsnews.com; mprnews.org) The vote reopens a fight that the Biden administration tried to settle in January 2023, when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland imposed the 20-year withdrawal after a federal environmental review. Interior said the order was meant to protect the Rainy River watershed, fish and wildlife, Tribal treaty rights, and a recreation economy tied to the wilderness. (doi.gov) The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness stretches nearly 150 miles along the Canadian border inside Superior National Forest. The Forest Service says the area is a maze of lakes, islands, rocky outcrops, and forest; advocates describe it as the most-visited wilderness in the United States. (fs.usda.gov; savetheboundarywaters.org) At the center of the dispute is Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of Chilean mining company Antofagasta, which has spent years pursuing a copper-nickel mine near Ely on Birch Lake, outside the wilderness boundary but inside its watershed. The Senate vote clears the way for the company to seek federal leases again, though permits and other approvals would still take years. (mprnews.org; courthousenews.com) The federal government had already canceled Twin Metals’ leases in 2022 after concluding they had been improperly renewed during Trump’s first term. The Interior Department said then that the Forest Service had cited contamination risks to the surrounding watershed when it withheld consent for renewal in 2016. (doi.gov) Supporters of the repeal, including Stauber, say northern Minnesota holds copper, nickel, cobalt and other minerals needed for domestic supply chains, and they frame the project as a jobs and national security issue. Opponents, including Smith and national conservation groups, say sulfide-ore mining in a lake-filled watershed risks acid drainage and heavy-metal pollution that could spread through interconnected waters. (stauber.house.gov; earthjustice.org) If Trump signs the resolution, the 2023 withdrawal is gone, but the mine itself is not automatically approved. The next fight shifts back to leases, permits, and whether a copper-nickel project can clear federal review in the same watershed that Congress just voted to reopen. (congress.gov; mprnews.org)