Stauber bill would let mining permits move forward in Superior National Forest
FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2011, file photo, a core sample drilled from underground rock near Ely, Minn., shows a band of shiny minerals containing copper, nickel and precious metals, center, that Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, hopes to mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. The Biden administration moved Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, to protect the pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota from future mining, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel project. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)
Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., reintroduced a bill this week that would repeal a Biden administration policy that blocked mining and exploration permits within Superior National Forest.
Stauber said his bill, the Superior National Forest Restoration Act, follows through on a promise by President Donald Trump to expand the extraction of copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum and other metals used with high-demand technological applications.
The bill would eliminate a public land order issued by former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland that withdrew more than 225,000 acres of national forest from mineral and geothermal leasing for 20 years in the interest of protecting “fragile and vital social and natural resources, ecological integrity, and wilderness values.”
Stauber’s bill would also restore two mineral leases held by Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, that former President Joe Biden canceled in 2021.
Despite concerns from environmental groups, Stauber said his bill would not allow mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or surrounding buffer zones.
“The pro-mining environmentalists understand it still has to meet the clean air standards, the clean water standards, all the environmental and labor standards, still has to meet that,” Stauber told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.
Chris Knopf, executive director of the environmentalist group Friends of the Boundary Waters, raised alarm about allowing Twin Metals to begin copper-sulfide mining in the region.
“Let’s be clear, this bill gives away your land, our land, to a foreign mining conglomerate and their billionaire owners,” Knopf said. “It prioritizes the profits of a Chilean mining conglomerate over the will of the majority of Minnesotans. It puts pollution over clean water. We will challenge this decision through every available avenue.”