An investigation by the Wall Street Journal has discovered a financial connection between the owner of a Chilean mining company with its sights on metals in land adjacent to the Boundary Waters, and the family of President Donald Trump.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner are renting a Washington, D.C. house that is owned by Andrónico Luksic, head of Antofagasta PLC, which controls the Twin Metals mine proposal.
“Antofagasta’s long history of pollution is no secret,” said Becky Rom of the Save the Boundary Waters campaign in a statement. “But we now know the lengths to which they will go to curry favor with the Trump administration in order to enrich their foreign executives at Minnesota’s expense.”
A representative of Luksic and the White House both claimed the family was paying market value for the rent, though neither party would disclose the amount. Luksic’s company has not yet filed necessary paperwork to collect rent on the house, and the house was also never listed for rent.
Lawyers that the reporters asked about the issue said if the couple is paying market rent, there might not be a problem, but, “deservedly or not, critics may still question the propriety of entering into any significant transaction with an individual with these apparent interests before the administration.”
Antofagasta is currently suing the federal government over former President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw federal mineral leases the company needs to operate the proposed mine.