The U.S. Department of Interior yesterday canceled two mineral leases held by Antofagasta PLC, a Chilean mining conglomerate proposing the Twin Metals copper-nickel mine near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It’s a major move in the decades-long battle over the prospect of such mining in northern Minnesota, which presents significant pollution risks.
The Interior Department says the leases, which allow private companies to mine publicly-owned minerals, were illegally renewed by the Trump administration in 2019. The agency’s decision at that time broke its own rules, ignored the authority of the Forest Service, and its environmental review was incomplete. Yesterday’s announcement included a new legal opinion issued by the department’s legal office, making the case for why the leases should never have been reinstated.
“The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans. We must be consistent in how we apply lease terms to ensure that no lessee receives special treatment,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “After a careful legal review, we found the leases were improperly renewed in violation of applicable statutes and regulations, and we are taking action to cancel them.”
Twin Metals cannot operate its proposed mine without the leases and, if the decision stands, the move will block the company from ever breaking ground.
Fight for mineral rights
The company criticized the cancellation, and vowed to fight it.
“The federal government’s reversal of its position on the mineral leases that Twin Metals Minnesota and its predecessor companies have held for more than 50 years is disappointing, but not surprising given the series of actions the administration has taken to try and shut the door on copper-nickel mining in northeast Minnesota,” the company said in a statement. (Note: The company did not hold the leases between 2016 and 2019.)
The legal opinion backing up the lease cancellation was authored by Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes, Deputy Solictor in the Department of Interior. She is also an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, is also an enrolled Native tribal member. Native American treaty rights and concerns about pollution have factored significantly into Twin Metals opposition. The 16-page document details the history of the lease cancellation and reinstatement, and the several ways Trump administration officials violated regulations in their hurry to restore the mineral rights to Twin Metals.
“The [Bureau of Land Management] did not request nor obtain the Forest Service’s consent before issuing the lease renewals,” she wrote. “The renewals were made with new, customized lease terms designed specifically for Twin Metals and that departed from and altered the BLM’s standard lease form and terms.”
Wednesday’s announcement is the latest chapter in a saga stretching back more than five years.
Revoked and renewed
In the summer of 2016, the Obama administration’s Forest Service sought public input on renewing or canceling the leases. That December, during President Obama’s “lame duck” period, the administration canceled the leases. Officials cited the fact that the leases had originally been issued to a different company in the 1960s, and Twin Metals had acquired them long after their intended expiration. The decision also included the announcement of a two-year pause on any new proposals, while the government studied whether a 20-year mining moratorium was warranted in the water-rich environment near the country’s most popular wilderness area.
“The Boundary Waters is a natural treasure, special to the 150,000 who canoe, fish, and recreate there each year, and is the economic life blood to local business that depend on a pristine natural resource,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said at the time. “I have asked Interior to take a time out, conduct a careful environmental analysis and engage the public on whether future mining should be authorized on any federal land next door to the Boundary Waters.”
The Trump administration moved swiftly to overturn the moratorium and lease decisions, amid a coordinated effort with Congress, Antofagasta, and others, raising serious corruption concerns. In May 2019, the government restored the leases, after previously cancelling the two-year study and moratorium.
“President Trump, the polluters and the profiteers who exploit our environment must not be allowed to desecrate this special place,” said Congresswoman Betty McCollum at the time. “This is a fight and we need to win so the BWCA can be protected forever.” After Trump lost the 2020 election, President Biden resumed the two-year study and moratorium last October. The Departments of Interior and Agriculture are currently analyzing whether or not to enact a 20-year ban on any mining in the wilderness watershed.
The decisions this week are markedly different from those in 2016 because of the timing. The previous cancellation occurred in the waning days of the Obama administration, and his successor could quickly reverse them. Now, with Biden still in office for at least three more years, the decisions could be more easily made permanent and defended in court.
“This action by the Biden administration re-establishes the long-standing legal consensus of five presidential administrations and marks a return of the rule of law,” said Becky Rom, National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. “It also allows for science-based decision-making on where risky mining is inappropriate. It is heartening to have an administration making decisions with integrity. Twin Metals leases should never have been reinstated in the first place, and this announcement should stop the Twin Metals mine threat.”
More information:
- Interior Department Takes Action on Mineral Leases Improperly Renewed in the Watershed of the Boundary Waters Wilderness – Dept. of Interior
- Biden administration cancels Twin Metals leases – Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters
- Memorandum: Authority to Cancel Improperly Renewed Twin Metals Mineral Leases and Withdrawal of M-37049, “Reversal of M-37036, ‘Twin Metals Minnesota Application to Renew Preference Right Leases (MNES-01352 and MNES-01353)’”
- Biden administration cancels Twin Metals’ leases to mine near BWCA – MPR News
