WASHINGTON, D.C.— The U.S. Senate has voted 50-49 to overturn a ban on copper-nickel mining on about 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest, upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
The action, engineered by Eighth District Rep. Pete Stauber in coordination with the Trump White House, amounts to a major setback for efforts to protect the 1.1-million-acre wilderness area from the effects of upstream mining, but the prospects for the proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine remain questionable. Even if the congressional action isn’t overturned in court, the mine would still need to pass muster with state regulators, where the proposal has faced considerable pushback. Polling has consistently shown that a large majority of Minnesotans favor protecting the BWCAW from the effects of a sulfide-based copper-nickel mine, including a sizable majority within the Eighth Congressional District.
DFL senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, and every other Democratic senator voted against the measure. They were joined by Republicans Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, and Susan Collins, of Maine. The vote, held late morning on April 16, came after several hours of debate the night before.
The vote was a major victory for supporters of the proposed mine, who argue that it will create badly needed jobs on the Iron Range, where 600 taconite workers have been out of work for nearly a year. Rep. Stauber called Thursday’s Senate vote a “major victory for America and Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District. Mining is our past, our present, and our future — and the future looks bright!”
Opponents of the mine argue that the mine will cost more jobs in the outdoor amenity economy that has built up around the Boundary Waters than it will create.

Legal challenge?
But the legality of the maneuver is likely to face scrutiny by the courts. Sen. Tina Smith, who took media questions immediately after the vote, predicted a legal challenge. “I think that Congress should follow the law,” she said. “That’s not what happened here.”
At issue is the use of the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, which gives Congress 60 session days after receiving notice of newly adopted federal regulations to vote to overturn them. Both Sens. Klobuchar and Smith argued during debate that the CRA only applies to federal regulations, not final public land orders and they predicted the attempt to misuse the CRA would open a Pandora’s box of threats to public lands across the country.
In addition, Smith noted during debate that the Biden administration had provided notice to Congress of the mining ban, known as a mineral withdrawal, three years ago, well beyond the 60-day limit required for action under the CRA.
“I think the courts will be important,” predicted Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters, a group that’s been leading much of the opposition to the proposed mine.
While opponents expressed disappointment in the Senate action, any potential Twin Metals mine remains years away. The Trump administration will still need to issue new mineral leases, an action that is sure to be closely scrutinized by opponents. Trump administration decisions have frequently come under fire in the courts, often on procedural grounds.
New leases would allow Twin Metals, and its parent company, Chilean-based mining giant Antofagasta, to begin the environmental review process. Based on past experience, the state of Minnesota would likely conduct its own separate environmental review, which could well add to the timeline. The environmental review for the former Polymet (now NewRange Copper) proposal took a full decade. That mine was eventually permitted in 2018, but several of the permits were later thrown out in the courts and the mine has yet to open eight years later.

Political football
The Senate’s action was just the latest twist in a decade long seesaw of conflicting decisions, reflecting the degree to which politics has long governed management of the Boundary Waters and the Superior National Forest. Leases for a proposed copper-nickel mine at the site were originally issued in 1966, as a political response by the Johnson administration to the closure of Ely’s last iron mine.
The original leaseholder, the International Nickel Company, or INCO, never developed a mine at the site, nor have companies that have subsequently controlled later versions of the leases. In 2017, the Obama administration canceled the mineral leases, but they were reinstated in 2018 by the Trump administration. The Biden administration later determined that the reinstatement was illegal and reimposed the mining ban on the affected acres in 2023. The final word on the leases likely remains to be written.