Minnesota Governor issues executive order to ban mining in Boundary Waters

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a sweeping executive order that aims to prevent the mining of copper, nickel and other precious metals within the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeast Minnesota.

The order directs the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency not to issue any mining permits or leases in the area, which spans about 350 square miles of the Superior National Forest within the Rainy River headwaters surrounding the wilderness.

If the executive order stands it would deal a blow to Twin Metals hopes of mining in the region.  Twin Metals has worked for over a decade to build an underground copper-nickel mine about nine miles southeast of Ely and just three miles from the southern edge of the wilderness and needs state and federal permits to do so.

Minnesota Public Radio reported that any proposed mining project in the state — even on federal lands — requires permits and environmental approvals from state agencies before it can move forward.

Waltz’s order would also halt any new environmental review of nonferrous (non-iron ore) mining proposals within the watershed, and would not allow state agencies to cooperate with the federal government on the review of any proposals.

“I am using my full executive authority to protect the waters and wildlife of the Boundary Waters and to ensure the outfitters, small businesses, and communities that depend on it continue to thrive for generations to come,” Walz said in a statement accompanying the executive order. “It’s our duty as Minnesotans to ensure the sacred place remains wild, pristine, and unharmed.”

Mining is already prohibited inside the Boundary Waters, as well as in a small buffer zone around it. Mining advocates argue that new mining projects could provide an enormous boost to the region’s economy.

They also emphasize that mining companies should be allowed to go through the established review and permitting process — and if they can’t demonstrate that their projects can be operated safely, then they shouldn’t be allowed to open.

Julie Lucas, executive director of the industry group Mining Minnesota, called the order “a political decision dressed up as an economic one.”

“The Governor’s own Department of Natural Resources concluded a six-year legal review that considered more than 4,000 public comments and the most current science available, and ruled definitively that Minnesota’s nonferrous mining regulations are strong enough to protect the Boundary Waters and its watershed,” Lucas said in a post on LinkedIn. “With this action today, the Governor is bowing to the demands of special interests, ignoring the findings of his own government and causing even greater delays for workers who need jobs, to the detriment of the Minnesotans he serves.

Mining advocates, including Minnesota Republican Congressman Pete Stauber, have argued that modern mines could both protect the environment and provide high-paying jobs, while producing important minerals needed for clean energy and other technologies.

Stauber called Walz’s order “a spiteful and harmful attack against the hardworking people of the Iron Range.”

“Years of rigorous review, environmental study, and massive private investment have been erased in seconds by a deeply unpopular governor, who has once again shown that he places far-left ideology above Minnesotans’ jobs and economic future,” Stauber said.

Walz issued the executive order four months after Congress voted to overturn a 20-year federal ban on mining in the area that had been instituted under the Biden administration.

It’s just the latest move in a long political tug of war over the potential for copper-nickel mining in northeastern Minnesota. It limits the mining of a significant portion of the Duluth Complex, one of the largest undeveloped deposits of copper, nickel, cobalt and other platinum-group metals in the world.

The Obama administration first proposed a possible 20-year mining moratorium just before he left office in 2017. President Trump quickly halted that process during his first term. Then Biden restarted it, and ultimately approved the so-called mineral withdrawal in 2023, saying that any mining pollution could cause irreparable harm to the Boundary Waters.