Twin Metals is getting back federal permits to explore for copper near the B-W-C-A Wilderness and develop a copper mine near Ely, after the Trump administration Friday reversed an earlier decision by the Obama administration. House Speaker Kurt Daudt calls it “great news for those that depend on these jobs in northern Minnesota and, frankly,… we *can* take advantage of our natural resources and protect the environment.” Governor Mark Dayton says, “This shameful reversal by the Trump Administration shows that big corporate money and special interest influence now rule again in Republican-controlled Washington.” He says a large corporation from Chile with a terrible environmental record “has trumped the need to protect Minnesota’s priceless Boundary Waters Canoe Area.”
Officials with the group Save the Boundary Waters call the decision “a big fat Christmas gift for a giant foreign mining corporation willing to do anything to exploit the watershed of Minnesota’s crown jewel.” They say the move is illegal and they’ll challenge it in court.