In 1993, I had the good fortune to spend nine days canoeing and camping through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota. I saw moose and beaver ponds and loons (one can’t really experience the magic of a loon call without hearing them in the wild on a cool misty morning) and miles and miles of gorgeous glacial lakes and birch and pine forests. It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.
The BWCAW stretches across more than a million acres (1,700 square miles) of pristine forest and contains more than 1,100 lakes and hundreds of miles of rivers and streams. There have been increasing efforts to protect the area, from banning logging in 1902, the creation of the Superior National Forest and the Quetico Provincial Park in neighboring Ontario in 1909, and culminating in The 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act that banned motorized boat traffic and snowmobiles, and put limits on the number of tourists. The BACAW is the most popular wilderness destination for tourists in the US.
But part of the BWCAW sits atop about four billion tons of copper and nickel ore, and mining interests have been trying to get at it for decades. In 2016 the federal government proposed banning mining for 20 years while the subject was studied.
Chilean mining giant Antofagasta Plc and its subsidiary Twin Metals Minnesota want to build a copper-nickel mine just upstream from the BWCAW on national forest land. Mining these metals could cause catastrophic damage to the region, particularly from contaminated water runoff.
Shortly after Trump was elected in 2016, Antofagasta owner, Chilean billionaire Andrónico Luksic, bought a mansion in Washington, D.C., that he then rented to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner to curry favor with Trump
In 2018, the Trump administration cancelled the 2016 study, opening the area to mining leases. In 2023, President Biden’s interior secretary Deb Haaland issued Public Land Order 7917 closing more than 350 square miles of the Superior National Forest, upstream from the BWCAW, to mineral leasing for 20 years after a comprehensive review by the U.S. Forest Service found sulfide-ore copper mining could cause irreparable damage.
Trump has been pushing to reopen mining in the area, and on January 21, 2026, Republicans in Congress pushed through House Joint Resolution 140, a resolution introduced by Republican Minnesota Representative Pete Stauber to end the moratorium on mining. Dismissing a Public Land Order has never been done before, and it squarely puts the financial interests of a foreign corporation ahead of the interests of the American people.
Democratic Minnesota Senator Tina Smith is leading the charge against its passage. “This mine is about a very well-connected, foreign mining conglomerate, Antofagasta,” she said outside the Minnesota State Capitol on Wednesday. “It wants to develop this mine, dig up the copper, leave us with the mess, then send the metal most likely to China, and then sell it back to us or whoever is willing to pay the highest price.”
It will take four Republicans joining the Democrats to block the measure from moving forward. Putting America’s greatest treasures against the greed of a foreign interloper, should be an extremely easy decision for anyone, but in the Trump era, it is hard to find Republican leaders willing to put our nation’s interests ahead of the will of their highly corrupt leader.
Please contact your Senators and Representatives to help save the precious Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The U.S. Capitol switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.
Our source for this article is a recent post from Heather Cox Richardson and some articles in Wikipedia.
The BWCAW stretches across more than a million acres (1,700 square miles) of pristine forest and contains more than 1,100 lakes and hundreds of miles of rivers and streams. There have been increasing efforts to protect the area, from banning logging in 1902, the creation of the Superior National Forest and the Quetico Provincial Park in neighboring Ontario in 1909, and culminating in The 1978 Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act that banned motorized boat traffic and snowmobiles, and put limits on the number of tourists. The BACAW is the most popular wilderness destination for tourists in the US.
But part of the BWCAW sits atop about four billion tons of copper and nickel ore, and mining interests have been trying to get at it for decades. In 2016 the federal government proposed banning mining for 20 years while the subject was studied.
Chilean mining giant Antofagasta Plc and its subsidiary Twin Metals Minnesota want to build a copper-nickel mine just upstream from the BWCAW on national forest land. Mining these metals could cause catastrophic damage to the region, particularly from contaminated water runoff.
Shortly after Trump was elected in 2016, Antofagasta owner, Chilean billionaire Andrónico Luksic, bought a mansion in Washington, D.C., that he then rented to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner to curry favor with Trump
In 2018, the Trump administration cancelled the 2016 study, opening the area to mining leases. In 2023, President Biden’s interior secretary Deb Haaland issued Public Land Order 7917 closing more than 350 square miles of the Superior National Forest, upstream from the BWCAW, to mineral leasing for 20 years after a comprehensive review by the U.S. Forest Service found sulfide-ore copper mining could cause irreparable damage.
Trump has been pushing to reopen mining in the area, and on January 21, 2026, Republicans in Congress pushed through House Joint Resolution 140, a resolution introduced by Republican Minnesota Representative Pete Stauber to end the moratorium on mining. Dismissing a Public Land Order has never been done before, and it squarely puts the financial interests of a foreign corporation ahead of the interests of the American people.
Democratic Minnesota Senator Tina Smith is leading the charge against its passage. “This mine is about a very well-connected, foreign mining conglomerate, Antofagasta,” she said outside the Minnesota State Capitol on Wednesday. “It wants to develop this mine, dig up the copper, leave us with the mess, then send the metal most likely to China, and then sell it back to us or whoever is willing to pay the highest price.”
It will take four Republicans joining the Democrats to block the measure from moving forward. Putting America’s greatest treasures against the greed of a foreign interloper, should be an extremely easy decision for anyone, but in the Trump era, it is hard to find Republican leaders willing to put our nation’s interests ahead of the will of their highly corrupt leader.
Please contact your Senators and Representatives to help save the precious Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The U.S. Capitol switchboard can be reached at (202) 224-3121.
Our source for this article is a recent post from Heather Cox Richardson and some articles in Wikipedia.
Meme, Minnesota, Boundary Waters, BWCAW, Mining, Canoeing, Trump, Rep Pete Stauber, Protected Land, Ecosystem