TMM Files Plan to Mine Near Boundary Waters
On Wednesday, December 18, 2019, Twin Metals Minnesota (TMM) to state and federal regulators its in the Superior National Forest near Ely, the northern Minnesota town that is known as the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), which extends nearly 200 miles along the state鈥檚 border with Canada.
The proposed mine would be upstream鈥攁nd just five miles distant鈥攆rom the BWCAW, and many groups have long been concerned that mining operations would send sulfuric acid and other pollutants into the Rainy River Watershed, thus adversely affecting the pristine wilderness area. That is because the reserves of copper, nickel, and platinum-group metals that the mine seeks to tap are bound in sulfide ore, which can leach toxic materials and harmful effluent when exposed to air or water.
Just days before TMM submitted its official plan to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, language that would have required a study of the full impact of copper-nickel mining on the BWCAW was dropped from a key appropriations bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, as the reported. Representative Betty McCollum, of St. Paul, had in the 2020 Interior-Environment Appropriations Bill, but the measure fell victim to negotiations between Democrats and Republicans as they moved quickly to finalize funding before the end of the year. A subsidiary of Chilean mining company Antofagasta PLC, which has a of environmental violations, TMM has said that it has already spent more than $450 million to bring the project to fruition. According to ProPublica, since July 2016 the company on lobbying members of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, the Executive Office of the President, the National Economic Council, and the Department of Commerce.