Gov. Walz Executive Order Blocks Copper Mining Near the BWCAW

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz issued an  executive order intended to prevent the mining of copper, nickel and other precious metals within the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 

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, pending legal appeals, would potentially 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. 

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. 

Gov. Walz issued the executive order four months after Congress voted to overturn a 20-year federal ban on mining in the area that had been instituted under the Biden administration. 

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.