US Moves to Protect Minnesota Wilderness from Planned Mine

The Biden administration moved Thursday to protect northeastern Minnesota's pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from future mining, dealing a potentially fatal blow to a copper-nickel project. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed an order closing more than 900 square kilometers of the Superior National Forest in the Rainy River Watershed around the town of Ely, to mineral and geothermal leasing for 20 years, the longest period the department can sequester the land without congressional approval. The order is "subject to existing valid rights," but the Biden administration contends that Twin Metals Minnesota lost its rights last year, when the department rescin
webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
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