Stauber proposes 'Superior National Forest Restoration Act' that would reopen area to mining
The proposed legislation, titled the "Superior National Forest Restoration Act," would reopen a 225,504-acre area for sulfide-ore copper mining contracts.
If approved, it would rescind the 20-year mining moratorium implemented by President Joe Biden in 2023, following an attempt by President Donald Trump during his first term in the White House to open up the area to mining.
In his statement, Stauber says his bill would reinstate mineral leases in the area, describing that Biden's decision to protect it "a direct attack on our way of life in northern Minnesota" that "threatened our nation's strategic national security."
"Thankfully, with Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans in control of both Chambers of Congress, we are well positioned to reverse the damage done by President Biden and turn Minnesota into a critical mineral powerhouse," he added.
Conservation group Save The Boundary Waters says that the bill would automatically force the issuance of federal mineral leases to Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, and introduced an expedited review timeline on any environmental review and project permits within the watershed of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs National Park.
"Rep. Stauber's bill is a giveaway of America's most popular wilderness area – the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness – to a foreign mining company,' said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters.
"Rep. Stauber's bill undermines the robust record of science, public opinion, law, and economics that clearly demonstrates that this iconic American landscape is absolutely no place for our nation's most dangerous industry."
A previous version of the bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in April 2024.The Boundary Waters has been the subject of a tug-of-war for the past decade, with the Obama Administration halted mineral exploration leases in 2016, only for them to be renewed by Trump during his first term as president.
Biden then reversed Trump's order, ordering 350 square miles of the forest and Rainy River Watershed near Ely to be closed to mineral and geothermal leasing for two decades – the longest amount of time it can issue the moratorium without congressional approval.
Much like many of the Trump Administration's recent actions in its first few weeks in power, it follows the advice of Project 2025 — a blueprint for Trump's second presidency put together by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation — which advised the repeal of the protection on mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.
According to a Public Land Order (PLO) signed by then-U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2023, resource scientists and professional land managers in the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management stated that a reversal of protections would cause environmental risks from sulfide-ore copper mining on land, water, and to wildlife.
The order also said it would cause harm to Native American communities, violate treaty rights and resources; and accelerate climate change impacts through the destruction of forest land and the vast consumption of energy by mining companies.
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