U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., has introduced a bill to ban copper-nickel mining on nearly a quarter-million acres of federal land in the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The bill would make permanent a 20-year ban on that type of mining on 225,000 acres of Superior National Forest land in the Rainy River Watershed, which is shared with the BWCAW.
The status of mining in that watershed and Twin Metals, which wants to build an underground mine, tailings storage facility and processing plant upstream of the BWCAW along Birch Lake, has bounced back and forth depending on who is in the White House. The mineral withdrawal, or pause, would expire in 2043, but Republican President Donald Trump has vowed to reverse it.
Smith’s legislation is similar to a bill introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat from St. Paul, but both bills are unlikely to pass as a Republican majority controls each chamber.
“The Boundary Waters must be protected for today, and future generations,” Smith said in a news release Wednesday. “The impartial science and data show unequivocally that copper-nickel sulfide mining poses an unacceptable risk to the Boundary Waters.”
The mineral withdrawal and rejection of Twin Metals leases were first enacted in the final days of the Obama administration. The Trump administration then reversed those moves, but they were later reinstated by the Biden administration, which also released an accompanying U.S. Forest Service study that said hard-rock mining in the Rainy River Watershed could pose an environmental threat to the BWCAW.
According to Save the Boundary Waters, Smith’s bill is the first in the U.S. Senate that would offer additional protections to the BWCAW in nearly 50 years. The last was the 1978 Boundary Waters Act, which was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter.
“Former Vice President Walter Mondale remained devoted to permanently protecting the Boundary Waters, calling it ‘the obligation of each generation,’” Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters, said in a news release. “Today, Senator Smith is building upon this legacy.”
The bill specifically targets sulfide ore mining, Smith said. That means the mining of metals like copper, nickel, gold and cobalt found in sulfide-bearing rock. Opponents fear pollution from this type of mining could leach out and pollute water downstream.
The bill exempts the mining of taconite, iron ore, gravel, sand and gravel from the ban, Smith said.
“Mining is an important driver of Minnesota’s economy and the pride of every Iron Ranger. I support mining, but not this mine in this precious place,” Smith said.
Smith’s bill is slightly less restrictive than the current mineral withdrawal, which bans all hard-rock mining, including the mining of iron ore and taconite, which is a type of iron ore, on those quarter-million acres; however, as the Duluth News Tribune previously reported, there are no known taconite deposits on the withdrawn land and only two parcels contain any sort of iron formation — a small amount of native iron ore, which hasn’t been mined in the state for almost 60 years.
U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, a Republican from Hermantown who has reintroduced a bill to reverse the mineral withdrawal, said in a news release Wednesday that Smith was “an out of touch Democrat trying to prevent the responsible development of the Duluth Complex.”
The Duluth Complex in northeastern Minnesota formed 1.1 billion years ago when the Midcontinent Rift tried to pull North America apart, sending magma up and leaving behind deposits of copper, nickel and other metals.
“With the introduction of this legislation, Senator Smith has once again proven herself to be anti-union,” Stauber said. “Fortunately, Senator Smith is in the minority and retiring soon, so any chance of this legislation becoming law is virtually impossible.”
Smith will be retiring at the end of her six-year term in 2027.
The office of U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did not respond to the News Tribune on whether she would sign on as a co-sponsor to Smith’s bill or if she supported or opposed the mineral withdrawal continuing.
In a statement, Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul said the company opposed any ban on mining in the region.
“Any attempt to permanently ban mining across a significant area in northeast Minnesota runs contrary to both our nation’s goals of bolstering mineral supply chains and the state of Minnesota’s decarbonization efforts,” Graul said. “This region sits on top of one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits of critical minerals that are vital in building clean energy technologies, creating American jobs, and bolstering our national security.”
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