Trump administration moves to lift Biden-era mining restrictions near Boundary Waters in Minnesota

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minn. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to lift restrictions on copper-nickel mining that the Biden administration imposed near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota.

The decision, announced Wednesday by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, threw a lifeline to the proposed Twin Metals Minnesota mine near Ely.

Democratic administrations have tried to kill the project because of what they called the threat of acid mine drainage into Boundary Waters, the country’s most-visited federally designated wilderness area.

Twin Metals is owned by Chilean mining giant Antofagasta. President Barack Obama’s administration declined to renew the company’s mineral rights leases in the area in 2016. The first Trump administration reinstated those leases in 2019.

President Joe Biden’s administration canceled the leases again in 2022 and imposed a 20-year moratorium on mining known as a “mineral withdrawal” in a 350-square-mile (900-square-kilometer) area of the Superior National Forest upstream from the wilderness that includes the proposed underground mine site.

Trump has singled out copper as a focus of his domestic minerals policy and promised during a campaign stop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, last year that he would quickly reverse the moratorium.

The Boundary Waters is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, putting it under Rollins’ purview, and the leases are controlled by Burgum’s Interior Department.

“After careful review, including extensive public input, the US Forest Service has enough information to know the withdrawal was never needed,” Rollins posted on X. “We look forward to working with Sec. Burgum to pursue American Energy Dominance and reverse the costly and disastrous policies of the Biden Administration.”

Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul praised the Trump administration for beginning the process of reversing the Biden administration’s decision, which she said was “based on a deeply flawed assessment” that failed to consider environmental safeguards the company built into its project design.

The company argues that its mine design will prevent acid discharges, and that the best way to determine whether it’s safe is by allowing it to undergo a formal environmental review process, which the state canceled in 2022.

“Overturning the mineral withdrawal will allow Minnesota the opportunity to become a global leader in the much-needed domestic production of minerals under some of the most rigorous environment and labor standards in the world,” Graul said in a statement.

But critics disputed her claim about public input, pointing out that the Trump administration has not conducted a formal public comment process on the policy reversal.

“The announcement by Secretaries Burgum and Rollins is shocking,” Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters, said in a statement. “They claim to have consulted with the people of Minnesota about the Boundary Waters when they clearly have not.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota scoffed at the secretary’s claim about a “careful review,” saying on X that the administration is “using pseudoscience to justify bad actions” and predicting that the decision will be challenged in court.

“Not this mine. Not this place. The Boundary Waters are too precious,” Smith said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents northeastern Minnesota and has championed the region’s iron and copper-nickel mining industries, said the Biden-era decision was a “massive wrong” that only “further cemented our reliance on Communist China” for critical minerals.

“As the demand for critical minerals continues to skyrocket, I look forward to seeing Minnesota’s skilled miners safely deliver our vast mineral wealth to the nation using the best labor and environmental standards in the world,” Stauber said in a statement.

Twin Metals is separate from two other proposed copper-nickel mines in Minnesota, the NewRange project formerly known as PolyMet, near Hoyt Lakes, which remains stalled by regulatory and court setbacks, and Talon Metals, near McGregor, which the Biden administration supported.

Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press