Biden Administration Cancels Mining Leases Near Wilderness Area

The Biden administration canceled two mining leases that would have allowed a copper mine to be built near a wilderness area in Minnesota.

The Interior Department said that the Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Antofagasta mining conglomerate, had been wrongly reinstated by the Trump administration in 2019.

President Obama declined to renew the leases for the mining project. The New York Times reported that in the early weeks of the Trump presidency, the administration worked at high levels to remove obstacles to the mine.

The move was made after discussions between executives and senior administration officials. The family that controls Antofagasta rented a $5.5 million house in Washington to the daughter of the former president.

The house rental was a simple real estate transaction that involved the incoming president's family. Both Ms. Trump and Mr. Kushner said they followed ethics guidance.

A request for comment on the latest decision was not immediately responded to. Twin Metals said in a statement that it would challenge the decision.

The company said in a statement that it was dedicated to bringing much-needed economic growth to the region and the opportunity to develop the critical minerals needed for our global efforts in fighting the climate crisis. The renewable energy industry uses a lot of copper.

The gray wolf and Canada lynx can be found in the Boundary Waters, a vast landscape of lakes and forests along the border with Canada. Beneath the surface lies an estimated four billion tons of copper and nickel. It is thought to be one of the world's largest undeveloped mineral deposits.

BOUNDARY WATERS.

There is a cane area.

Wildness.

The Interior Secretary said her department takes seriously its obligations to steward public lands and waters.

She said a new legal opinion from the Interior Department's Office of the Solicitor had found significant legal deficiencies in the circumstances surrounding the renewal.

The proposed mine had sparked a fierce backlash from local environmentalists. She said that the leases should never have been reinstated in the first place.