Plans for Minnesota Mine Filed Days After Trump Blocked Environmental Review
Plans for Minnesota Mine Filed Days After Trump Blocked Environmental Review
(Bloomberg) -- A mining company released plans to build a copper mine in Minnesota’s pristine Superior National Forest, days after the White House intervened to block Congress from mandating an environmental impact report on the project, a lawmaker said.
The move by Antofagasta Plc. subsidiary Twin Metals Minnesota LLC to file a formal mining plan with federal regulators kicks off a review process for the project, which in addition to copper would mine metals such as nickel and cobalt near the Boundary Waters, an immense 1.1 million-acre tract of federally protected lakes and forests near the Canadian border.
It comes days after the White House demanded the removal of a congressional requirement mandating the completion of an environmental study on the sulfide-ore mining project from government funding legislation, said Minnesota Democratic Representative Betty McCollum.
“The fix is in,” said McCollum, who added that the company’s plan would “extract profits while poisoning Minnesota’s most pristine waters.”
The White House declined to comment.
‘21st-Century’ Project
Kathy Graul, a Twin Metals spokeswoman, said the company was putting forward a “world-class, 21st-century” mining project, while noting it would be located in an area of Superior National Forest where activities like mining and logging “are considered desired conditions under the Superior National Forest Plan.”
“Minnesota is home to some of the most stringent environmental standards in the world,” she said in an email. “We will have to prove at both the state and federal levels that we will meet or exceed standards in place, or our project will not be authorized to move forward.”
The underground mine proposed near the city of Ely on the Rainy River Watershed has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists who fear the project will pollute some of the cleanest water in the world.
President Barack Obama, in the waning days of his administration, moved to take hundreds of thousands of acres in the Superior National Forest in far northern Minnesota off the table for mining exploration while a study was conducted on the environmental impact. The withdrawal requested a 20-year ban on industry activity, with a two-year moratorium to conduct the study.
But the project has gotten a boost from the Trump administration, whose Interior Department reversed that decision. Speaking at a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, last year, President Donald Trump blasted the Obama administration for putting that state’s natural resources “under lock and key,” and announced he would be “taking the first steps” to undo it.
Chilean businessman Andrónico Luksic, whose family controls Antofagasta, owns the Washington mansion that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are renting. Luksic rents the 7,000-square-foot house to the first daughter and her husband, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2017. That’s led opponents of the mining project to suggest a conflict of interest.
“It shows there is a very close relationship between the two families, and that Antofagasta family and company was working behind the scenes to get as many political favors as possible,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a senior official with the group Earthjustice, one of several groups suing to block the mine from proceeding.
Graul, the Twin Metals spokeswoman, said the rental house arrangement was unrelated to the proposed mine.
Unacceptable Risk?
The report language sought by McCollum, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that has oversight over the Interior Department, would have required a National Academy of Sciences report on the environmental impacts of the project. A similar scientific study was “abruptly canceled” in 2018, according to a House legislative report accompanying an Interior Appropriations bill that’s slated to pass Congress this week as part of a broad government funding measure.
The study, which was nearly complete when it was halted, was expected to show hosting a copper-sulfide mine in the area presented an unacceptable risk, Miller-McFeeley said.
“Why else would they be suppressing a study like this unless they are scared of it?” Miller-McFeeley said. “All independent studies state a copper sulfide mine in this environment will create a level of pollution that will harm that wilderness area and the economy of that area that is outdoor-recreation based.”
Backers of the project say it will create jobs and help the economy in the remote northeastern part of the state, while producing critical metals needed nationally.
“The development of these resources will be done responsibly as our regulations are the strongest in the world and mandate that this company operates at the highest of environmental and labor standards,” said Minnesota Republican Representative Pete Stauber, whose Congressional district includes the Ely/Boundary Waters area.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny
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