REGIONAL— The federal Bureau of Land Management is proposing to reissue two mineral leases on the Superior National Forest to Twin Metals and is seeking public comment on the plan during an abbreviated environmental review process. The BLM is giving the public until Jan. 22, 2019, to comment on the proposal.

The latest action by the BLM is not a surprise, given that the agency temporarily reinstated the leases back in May, effectively overturning a 2016 decision by the Obama administration to cancel the leases.

Twin Metals, which is controlled by Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, hailed the decision in a press statement and indicated the company was working to quickly complete a mine plan in order to begin an environmental review of their proposal. The Twin Metals statement claimed that the Interior Department issued the leases in 1966 with a “right of unlimited, successive 10-year renewals.” In fact, the leases came with an initial term of 20 years and a right of up to three ten-year renewals, but only if actual mining was underway in the initial 20-year term. No mining operations have gotten underway as a result of the leases in the more than half a century since they were issued.

The pro-mining group Jobs for Minnesotans called the BLM action a “positive next step for Twin Metals.”

“The renewal of the leases is just one of many important milestones that Twin Metals will work to achieve before entering the robust environmental review process required prior to any mining activity,” said the group in a statement.

Critics of the proposal, which would open a copper-nickel mine just upstream of the 1.1 million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, called the proposal and the process “unlawful.” Several Minnesota-based businesses and national environmental organizations are suing the Trump Interior Department over the decision last May to reinstate the leases temporarily. That decision was based on a controversial legal opinion written by DOI legal counsel Daniel Jorjani, a long-time legal counsel for the conservative, pro-industry Charles Koch Institute. It was Jorjani’s opinion that the Obama-era cancellation of the leases was based on “legal error” that made the current proposal to reissue the leases possible.

Without that opinion, the Trump administration would have had to follow the standard environmental review process for mining leases in order to issue new leases to Twin Metals. That review would have been led by the U.S. Forest Service, which has already weighed in against reissuance of the leases due to concerns over the risks that sulfide-based mining poses to the Boundary Waters. The Forest Service would have also had the right to reject the leases outright, since a 1950 federal law gives the agency veto power over mining projects on the Superior National Forest.

“The Trump Administration’s unlawful renewal of toxic mining leases next to the Boundary Waters goes against good science, obvious facts, and basic common sense,” said Becky Rom, National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters. “The Trump administration is trying to do an end run around the environmental review process and ram through federal approvals while they still can.”

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Written comments should be addressed to MN Hardrock Lease Renewal EA Project Manager, Northeastern States District Office, 626 E. Wisconsin Ave., Ste. 200, Milwaukee, WI 53202.  Prior to including your address, phone number, email address or other personally identifiable information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personally identifiable information – may be made publicly available at any time.  

The Environmental Assessment is available at  https://go.usa.gov/xPtDd.