Published: September 13, 2023 | Share This

[Click image to enlarge]

A U.S. District Court Judge in Washington, D.C. has dismissed a lawsuit that Twin Metals Minnesota filed last year to try to revive its stalled attempt to develop a proposed $1.7 billion copper-nickel mine on the doorstep of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Twin Metals, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, filed the suit in August. It challenged a series of decisions by the U.S. Department of Interior that cancelled Twin Metals’ mineral leases, rejected applications for prospecting permits, and denied its proposed mining plan.

Several environmental groups and recreational businesses surrounding the Boundary Waters intervened in the case in December, and asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

In a 21-page decision, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper agreed, writing “that the Court lacks jurisdiction over two of Twin Metals’ claims and that the remaining two fail to state a claim.”

Twin Metals is struggling to preserve a path forward for its proposed underground mine along the shores of Birch Lake, outside Ely, Minnesota.

The Obama administration, in its final weeks, declined to renew two federal mineral leases Twin Metals needs for its proposed mine for copper, nickel and other metals like platinum and cobalt.

The Trump administration reversed that decision and reinstated the leases.

But the Biden administration canceled the leases again, and also imposed a 20 year-mining moratorium — known as a mineral withdrawal — on about 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest near the Boundary Waters, including the area where Twin Metals wants to mine.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources subsequently stopped its environmental review of the proposal. Twin Metals was in the very early stages of seeking state approval for its project.

NEXT STEPS

In a statement, Twin Metals Minnesota said it is currently reviewing the judge’s opinion to determine its next steps. “We remain committed to the communities of northeast Minnesota, as we have been for more than a decade.”

When the company announced its lawsuit last year, Director of Operations Dean DeBeltz declined to speculate on the mine’s future if the lawsuit failed and the leases were not reinstated.

“The critical piece of the filing of this lawsuit is really to stand up for our legal rights,” DeBeltz said at the time.

Environmental groups have fought the proposed Twin Metals mine for years, arguing that a copper-nickel mine poses too great a pollution risk to the popular Boundary Waters wilderness and the recreation-based economy it supports in northeastern Minnesota.

Twin Metals has argued it can mine for the metals needed for the transition to a green economy while also protecting the environment and creating hundreds of high-paying jobs. The company has said it’s invested more than $550 million in developing the project.

In his decision, Judge Cooper said the “real harms” alleged by Twin Metals was that the company spent money on the mining project based on the Trump administration’s approval of its leases, and that as a result of the Biden administration’s changing course, Twin Metals cannot recoup its “investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Knopf, of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, suggested that Twin Metals could appeal for monetary damages to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Meanwhile, legislation has been introduced both at the state and federal levels that would permanently ban new mining projects within the watershed of the Boundary Waters.

Source: MPR News

Twin Metals Minnesota is a Minnesota company focused on designing, constructing and operating an underground copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals mining project in northeast Minnesota. The TMM project brings the promise of significant long-term jobs and environmentally responsible economic development for generations in Minnesota. Twin Metals is owned by Antofagasta, one of the top ten copper producers in the world.

Be in-the-know when you’re on-the-go!