{"id":608672,"date":"2026-04-16T19:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608672\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:56:07","slug":"u-s-allows-mining-near-minnesota-wilderness-area-with-waters-flowing-into-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/608672\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. allows mining near Minnesota wilderness area, with waters flowing into Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An aerial view from Birch River, a few kilometres downstream from the Twin Metals proposed copper-nickel mine, and about 20 km upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.Melissa Tait\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The U.S. Congress has passed a measure to allow copper-nickel mining in northeastern Minnesota on federal lands adjacent to a popular wilderness area whose waters flow into Canada.<\/p>\n

The vote passed by a narrow 50-49 margin in the U.S. Senate on Thursday. It overturns a pair of decisions made by the Joe Biden administration, which in 2022 cancelled mineral leases on federal lands around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and, the following year, imposed a 20-year-moratorium on mining and exploration, citing environmental risks.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives passed the measure earlier this year. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

murat y\u00fckselir \/ the globe and mail, source: USGS; Ontario GeoHub; Minnesota Geospatial Commons; Twin Metals Minnesota; Minnesota Pollution Control Agency<\/p>\n

The Duluth complex, which underlies the area west of Lake Superior, contains a third of the copper found in the U.S., 88 per cent of the cobalt and 95 per cent of the nickel, along with platinum and palladium. It is the largest undeveloped mineral deposit of its kind, with projects under development by several companies.<\/p>\n

The deposits lie next to the Boundary Waters, a quiet roadless wilderness whose bogs, lakes and rivers flow across the Canadian border, toward Lake of the Woods, ultimately draining to Hudson Bay. <\/p>\n

In Minnesota\u2019s wilderness, a town divided over the future of mining <\/a><\/p>\n

Environmental groups have raised concern that mining would release sulphates into local waters, produce methylmercury, a neurotoxin that can travel up food chains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly is causing a lot of concerns on this side of the border \u2013 and certainly the concerns would seem to me to be valid,\u201d Marcus Powlowski, the Liberal member of Parliament for Thunder Bay\u2014Rainy River, said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to expose people to mercury poisoning in Canada willfully \u2013 or, we can\u2019t turn a blind eye to that,\u201d Mr. Powlowski said. <\/p>\n

Across the U.S., canoeists, anglers and environmental advocates have warned that mining could permanently damage a place so pristine that locals draw drinking water directly from lakes. <\/p>\n

Under President Donald Trump, however, Republicans have sought to expand the extraction of natural resources from federal lands, pushing for more U.S. production of lumber, hydrocarbons and minerals. Mr. Trump himself promoted mining in the area at a 2020 campaign stop in Duluth; his administration has said it is time to \u201cmine, baby, mine,\u201d and companies say they can mine without harming local waters.<\/p>\n

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Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., speaks about the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota, on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on April 15.Uncredited\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Republicans in Congress used an unusual legislative manoeuvre to cancel the moratorium, prompting a warning from Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat, that the vote set \u201ca dangerous precedent that would affect every state in our country,\u201d giving Congress a power to summarily override other decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cExamples of orders that could be overturned years after the fact would include fossil fuel and mining leases, permits and permitting denials, any rule or determination of any administrative law matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Congressional decision will not bring mines to life quickly. State regulators in Minnesota would likely take years \u2013 perhaps decades \u2013 to scrutinize any new project. Even corporate proponents acknowledge that securing regulatory approval is a lengthy process. <\/p>\n

The Canadian government said it has kept watch on developments in the region, advocating \u201cthat mining activity be properly assessed and managed,\u201d John Babcock, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said in a statement. (Mines have also been proposed nearby on the Ontario side of the border.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joint stewardship of the environment is a cornerstone of Canada-U.S. relations, from air and water quality to wildlife management,\u201d Mr. Babcock said. He gave as an example the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty, which \u201dhas guided our two nations in our joint stewardship of trans-boundary water resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

That treaty stipulates that \u201cwaters flowing across the boundary shall not be polluted on either side to the injury of health or property on the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

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James Devine, Twin Metals community & project operations manager, drives the specialized loader at the Twin Metals core library.Melissa Tait\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The International Joint Commission, or IJC, is the body created by the treaty to oversee such matters. It continues to function under Mr. Trump, whose administration has withdrawn from other international organizations.<\/p>\n

But the treaty does not define what constitutes injury of health or property and the IJC has no ability to enforce clean water demands.<\/p>\n

It is governments on both sides of the border that have \u201call the jurisdiction when it comes to regulating water quality,\u201d Merrell-Ann Phare, one of three Canadian commissioners on the IJC, said this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not police,\u201d Ms. Phare added.<\/p>\n

Still, miners in Minnesota say they intend to use the best available technology to ensure their work does not sully the waters \u2013 including underground operations that limit the surface footprint and dried tailings not kept in large ponds like other mines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no tailings dam. There is no potential for tailings dam failure,\u201d said Kathy Graul, a spokeswoman for Twin Metals Minnesota, which has already spent US$650-million on its project in the area. The law requires \u201cthere cannot be a drop of measurable pollution that enters the Boundary Waters,\u201d she said. \u201dWe are very confident that we\u2019ve designed a project that can meet that standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A view towards Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness near Hegman Lake.Melissa Tait\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An aerial view from Birch River, a few kilometres downstream from the Twin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-608672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-science","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}