Opponents say they’ll sue after federal government reinstated mineral-rights leases for the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine near Ely. Becky Rom with Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters says the U-S Interior Department’s action is illegal. “Under the laws of the country,… you can’t grant rights to mine public minerals without first having a very public process,” Rom says. “Reaching back all the way to 1986 to try to breathe life into mineral leases that ended way back then is just wrong in so many ways I almost can’t even begin to explain it.”
The Obama administration in its final weeks refused to re-instate those mineral rights leases but the Trump administration has reversed that decision. Backers of the Twin Metals project say new technology will protect the surrounding waters, and the project will bring much-needed jobs to northeastern Minnesota.
More in this interview with Rom: