Twin Metals LLC is seeking approval to create and operate a copper sulfide mine near Ely, Minnesota, on Superior National Forest land. There has been significant opposition to the proposed mine, most notably because of its proximity to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, location within a watershed that drains into the BWCA, and the air, water, light and noise pollution and traffic effects of converting a forested area bordering the BWCA into a substantial industrial mining facility. Twin Metals is a subsidiary of the Chilean conglomerate Antofagasta, which is controlled by billionaire Andrónico Luksic. The original lease is a 1966 lease to the International Nickel Corporation.
The facility would have an underground mining area accessed by two sloping tunnels, an above-ground processing factory, and a tailings dumping area that would use the dry-storage method. Twin Metals has estimated that the mine would provide 700 jobs and create 1,400 jobs in related industries and that it would operate for 25 years, mining 20,000 tons of ore per day retrieved from depths of between 400 and 4,500 feet.
The mine's leases were terminated under the Obama administration but renewed under the Trump administration. Critics have objected to and filed lawsuits against various aspects of the lease renewal and regulatory processes. In March 2021, President Joe Biden announced that the Interior and Agriculture departments would review Twin Metals' lease renewal and a judge ordered a pause in the lawsuit(s) until June 21, 2021, to review the Trump administration's decision to renew the leases. On October 20, 2021, the Biden administration ordered a study that could lead to a 20-year ban on mining upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The federal government said it has filed an application for a "mineral withdrawal", which would begin with a thorough study of the likely environmental and other impacts of mining if it were permitted in a watershed that flows into the Boundary Waters. On January 26, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior canceled two leases required to build and operate the mine, determining that they were improperly renewed under the previous administration. On January 26, 2023, The Department of the Interior set a 20-year moratorium on mining in 225,000 acres of the forest upstream of the BWCA. The moratorium protects the waters of the Rainy River watershed from pollution and blocks the proposed Twin Metals mine.[1]
Iron mining was a significant part of Ely's history but there have been no active mines nearby for 50 years and Ely's primary industry is now recreational business related to the BWCA and Superior National Forest. Proponents cite the economic benefits from projected jobs from the mine; opponents assert that those might not be as expected and would last only for 25 years, and that the mine could prove to be a net economic loss for the region because of its effects on other aspects of its economy.