If those leases aren’t given back to the company, and a mineral withdrawal is approved, no new mining on the site, on the shore of Birch Lake, would be allowed for 20 years. Twin Metals has said it plans to fight the lease cancellation. Since proposing the mining moratorium, the Biden administration also canceled two federal mineral leases in the area held by Twin Metals Minnesota, which seeks to build an underground mine for copper, nickel and precious metals near Ely, just south of the Boundary Waters. Groups fighting proposed mines have targeted the area of federal land south of the Boundary Waters because any water pollution released from new mines there could flow into the wilderness. This withdrawal would cover roughly 250,000 acres of Superior National Forest land that’s outside of those areas, but within the watershed of the BWCA. Mining is already banned within the million acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in a buffer strip around the wilderness border, and along the three major entry corridors into the wilderness. Then, in October, the Biden administration again proposed to ban new copper mining in the region for 20 years, arguing it was needed to protect the Boundary Waters “from adverse environmental impacts” from mining. But the proposed moratorium was canceled under the Trump administration, and the unfinished environmental study was never released, despite calls from Congressional and state leaders.
The 20-year “mineral withdrawal,” as it’s formally known, was first proposed in the waning days of the Obama administration. “Knowing that we are one step closer to a 20-year moratorium on toxic mining on federal land surrounding the Boundary Waters is reason to both celebrate and believe that science, the law, and the popular will, can prevail,” said Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, one of several groups fighting proposed copper-nickel mines in northern Minnesota.
She will make the final decision whether to place about 350 square miles of northern Minnesota off-limits to new copper-nickel mines. Bureau of Land Management and ultimately to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. Members of the public now have 30 days to comment on the environmental assessment, which will then be forwarded to the U.S. It is the latest step in a bid by the Biden administration to place a long-term pause on proposed copper-nickel mines across a large swath of northeastern Minnesota. Forest Service has released a long-awaited environmental study of a proposed 20-year copper mining moratorium on federal land near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
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