ELY, MINNESOTA — If mines are developed in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, an environmental group warns any resulting contamination of the environment could pose a threat to waters on the Ontario side of the international border.
"The pollution that could arise from these mines, more or less inevitably would arise from them, could very well affect waters in Quetico Park as well," said Pete Marshall, spokesperson for Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.
The group, based in St. Paul, has an office in Ely, Minnesota.
Marshall was speaking during an interview Tuesday about a renewed effort by a Republican congressman from Minnesota, Pete Stauber, to overturn a Biden administration ban on mining in the Ely area, just south of the BWCAW.
"It's worth remembering that Quetico and the Boundary Waters were more or less developed in tandem. In many ways they were protected around the same time, and through joint agreement that a lot of people envisioned a grand international preserve, basically," Marshall told Newswatch.
A poll conducted in 2020 by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune found 60 per cent of Minnesotans opposed building new mines near the federally-protected BWCAW.
But Stauber, who reintroduced legislation earlier this month to restore mineral leases held in the Superior National Forest by Twin Metals – a subsidiary of a Chilean mining firm – has called the Biden administration's 2022 cancellation of the leases a threat to the national security of the U.S.
"Thankfully, with Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans in control of both Chambers of Congress, we are well-positioned to reverse the damage done by President Biden and turn Minnesota into a critical mineral powerhouse," he said in a press release.
Twin Metals has been looking to develop a mine to extract copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals at a site about 14 kilometres from Ely.
The company promises to create 750 full-time jobs and 1,500 spinoff jobs in northeastern Minnesota.
Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, has said Stauber's bill would strip protection from hundreds of thousands of protected land surrounding the boundary waters, and open it to toxic copper-sulfide mining.
In addition, he said, it would curb any meaningful environmental review.
"It prioritizes the profits of a mining giant [Antofagasta] over the will of the majority of Minnesotans. It puts pollution over clean water. We will challenge this decision through every available avenue."
But the chances of preventing Stauber's bill from being passed in Congress would seem remote at best.
Trump campaigned last year on revoking the mining ban, and Marshall acknowledged "it's certainly an uphill battle" for opponents.
"We're clear-eyed about that," he said, but added that Friends of the Boundary Waters will try to gain support in Congress by convincing members the wilderness area is a national treasure and that it deserves protection.
A spokesperson for The Friends of Quetico Park declined to comment, explaining that the group is a non-political charitable organization.
