For Immediate Release
February 5, 2025
Contact: Libby London, 612-227-8407
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, 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).
This bill would rescind the Biden Administration’s 20-year mineral withdrawal, automatically force the issuance of federal mineral leases to Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, place an expedited review timeline on any environmental review and project permits within the watershed of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs National Park.
A previous version of this bill, H.R. 3195, passed the full U.S. House of Representatives on April 30, 2024.
“Rep. Stauber’s bill is a giveaway of America’s most popular Wilderness Area – the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness – to a foreign mining company,” said Ingrid Lyons, Executive Director of Save the Boundary Waters, “Rep. Stauber’s bill undermines the robust record of science, public opinion, law, and economics that clearly demonstrates that this iconic American landscape is absolutely no place for our nation’s most dangerous industry. Seventy percent of Minnesotans want the Boundary Waters protected from sulfide-ore copper mining, including over half of Rep. Stauber's district. This deeply unpopular, anti-Wilderness legislation must be stopped in the Senate. As always, Save the Boundary Waters is evaluating and tracking Administrative actions and legislation as part of our ongoing efforts to address the ongoing threats to the Wilderness.”
This bill would not only reverse the Biden Administration’s mineral withdrawal but also automatically force the issuance of federal mineral leases to Chilean mining giant Antofagasta without review, place an arbitrary and truncated 18-month review on any environmental review and project permits within the watershed of the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs National Park, setting a dangerous precedent for America’s public lands.
This legislation threatens meaningful public input processes that have been critical in the fight to protect the Boundary Waters permanently. Over the past five years, opportunities for public input on proposed sulfide-ore copper mining near the Boundary Waters have resulted in Americans submitting more than 675,000 comments to the federal government supporting protections for the Boundary Waters Watershed.
On January 26th, 2023, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed a Public Land Order (PLO) that withdrew 225,504 acres of public lands located in the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from the federal mineral leasing program for 20 years. Her action was informed by the diligent scientific work of resource scientists and professional land managers in the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, who considered the environmental risks of sulfide-ore copper mining on land, water, and wildlife, the potential harm to Native American communities, treaty rights, and resources; and climate change implications resulting from the destruction of forest land and the vast consumption of energy by mining companies.
70% of Minnesotans support a ban on sulfide-ore copper mining in the Boundary Waters headwaters, including over half of people in Rep. Stauber’s own Congressional District Eight. A vast collection of peer-reviewed science shows that if Antofagasta’s Twin Metals copper-nickel mine were built along the rivers and streams flowing into the Wilderness, pollution and environmental degradation would be certain.
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