Know the Issue

The facts: Rep. Stauber's bill to force sulfide-ore copper mining upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 

Feb 6, 2025
Save the Boundary Waters

On February 5, 2025, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber re-introduced the Superior National Forest Restoration Act, which would reverse the historic 2023 Biden Administration decision to protect 225,504 acres of the Superior National Forest in the Boundary Waters headwaters from mining development and degradation for 20 years (Public Land Order 7917). 

  • H.R. 978, would rescind Public Land Order 7917 (PLO), which banned toxic copper mining on 225,504 acres of Superior National Forest land in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) for twenty years. The PLO came after the U.S. Forest Service published a comprehensive scientific review finding that sulfide-ore copper mining would pollute the Boundary Waters in ways that could not be fixed or mitigated and thus proposed a 20-year mineral withdrawal on federal lands and minerals in the watershed.
    • Secretary Haaland signed this order on January 26th, 2023. It was the most significant conservation measure for protecting Wilderness canoe country since the 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act.
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  • H.R. 978 puts America’s most popular wilderness at risk by opening the headwaters of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs National Park to sulfide-ore copper mining—a destructive and poisonous type of mining that has never been done before in Minnesota.
  • H.R. 978 would also force the government to reissue canceled federal mining leases to companies like Antofagasta’s Twin Metals, renew mining prospecting permits and additional leases, and approve mine plans on an expedited timeline. It would prohibit judicial review of leases and prospecting permits.
  • These efforts to undo the Public Land Order go directly against the robust science, favorable public opinion, and the sound legal basis of the decision.
  • This legislation also sets a dangerous precedent for our nation’s cherished places. It is critical for elected officials to lead the fight to protect America’s public lands, including the Boundary Waters, by opposing this harmful, unpopular legislation.
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H.R. 978 goes against the will of the people.

According to a poll by Former President Trump’s Pollster, Fabrizio Ward, 56% of constituents in Rep. Stauber’s district and 70% of Minnesotans oppose copper mining near the Boundary Waters.

The Boundary Waters is an irreplaceable boreal Wilderness and economic engine for the region.

  • The BWCA is the largest Wilderness east of the Rockies and north of the Everglades. Along with the Superior National Forest, it contains 20% of all the freshwater in the entire National Forest System.
  • The Boundary Waters is the most heavily visited national wilderness area in the United States, attracting more than 165,000 visitors from all over the world each year. It helps drive more than $900 million in annual economic activity and helps support over 17,000 jobs. A peer-reviewed independent study from Harvard University shows that protecting the Boundary Waters from a proposed Twin Metals sulfide-ore copper mine would result in dramatically more jobs and more income over a 20-year period than allowing the mine to be developed.

H.R. 978 is a giveaway to Foreign Governments and Corporations. 

  • Duluth Complex ore is Insignificant and Irrelevant in meeting U.S. or Global Demand for Copper.
  • Antofagasta’s Twin Metals mine would produce only 2.3% of U.S. copper demand, 1.5% of U.S. Cobalt demand, and only 3.6% of U.S. Nickel demand.
  • Any ore would be shipped overseas, most likely to China, for refinement and sale on the global market. This mine would be irrelevant to any national security interests and only adds to China’s attempts to control global commodity stockpiles.
  • The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is more valuable to the economy of northeastern Minnesota than any potential benefit mining would provide.