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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued a sweeping executive order Tuesday 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. 

Any proposed mining project in the state — even on federal lands — requires permits and environmental approvals from state agencies before it can move forward. 

The order also would 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. 

The executive order, if it stands, would likely end the prospects of Twin Metals, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining company Antofagasta. 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. 

Twin Metals’ project along Birch Lake consists of both federal and state mineral leases. 

“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.” 

The action will undoubtedly be celebrated by conservation groups that have long argued that this kind of mining is too risky for the water rich environment of northern Minnesota. Copper-nickel mining carries with it much more serious risks for serious water pollution than iron ore mining, which has a 140-year-long history in the state. 

Mining is not allowed inside the Boundary Waters, nor in a small buffer zone around it. Environmental groups have argued it is also important to protect the broader watershed, because any mining pollution in those 225,000 acres outside of the BWCA could flow directly into the protected wilderness area. 

But advocates for what would be a new kind of mining in Minnesota, including labor and business groups, argue it 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. 

The executive action is sure to be slammed by Minnesota Republican Congressman Pete Stauber and other mining champions who 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. 

Walz is issuing the executive order four months after 

 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 

, saying that any mining pollution could cause irreparable harm to the Boundary Waters. 

Trump then reversed that ban earlier this year. And now Walz is acting at the state level to prevent mining from occurring in the area. 

“At a time when the federal government is stepping back on its commitment to protecting the environment and the people who live here, the state of Minnesota under Gov Walz’s leadership is stepping up,” Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Katrina Kessler said in a statement Tuesday morning.

But as an executive order, the action could be overturned by a subsequent administration without going through the state legislature. 

The order calls on the Minnesota DNR to draft legislative language to permanently prohibit mining in the Rainy River headwaters. The prospects of such a bill are unclear in a closely divided state legislature. Similar legislation introduced in recent sessions has stalled. 

Walz has deep personal connections to the Boundary Waters, something he’s discussed when addressing the major wildfires still burning in the wilderness. 

He’s taken many family trips into the wilderness. About a decade ago, his brother Craig was killed when several trees blew down over his campsite in the BWCA. Walz’s nephew, Jake, survived with several broken bones. 

Walz is placing the mining executive order in the context of what he says has been broader action to protect the environment for the nearly eight years he’s been in office, ranging from efforts to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ban so-called “forever chemicals,” speed up permitting for clean energy projects and planting millions of trees. 

Walz is not running for re-election this year. Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican State House Speaker Lisa Demuth are the two major-party candidates on the November ballot to replace him.

Demuth issued a statement Tuesday morning saying that Democrats “continue their hostility toward Minnesota mining, taking job growth opportunities off the table before they can even go through the regulatory review process.”

“As Governor, I will work each day to ensure mining is part of Minnesota’s future. We can do it safely here better than anywhere in the world, protecting our beloved outdoors while benefiting from the job creation and tax revenue these projects bring to northern Minnesota,” Demuth said.

In an interview with MPR News shortly after Walz announced his executive order, Klobuchar said she hadn’t yet had a chance to look at the wording of that measure. 

Klobuchar said she has serious concerns about mining next to the BWCA, but also noted that “there is other mining going on across the Range, including Mesabi Metallics iron ore mine about to open up, and some other proposed mining projects that don’t endanger the Boundary Waters, that I think it is important to continue to allow pending environmental reviews to go forward.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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Dan Kraker

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Four months after Congress reversed a ban on mining over about 350 square miles in the watershed of the northeastern Minnesota wilderness, Gov. Tim Walz has issued a state executive order to block copper-nickel mining in the area. 

The Kawishiwi River and forests are seen in this aerial photo. 

Walz executive order moves to block copper mining near the Boundary Waters

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