The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has fumbled away an opportunity to free up the sweeping study kept secret by the Trump administration of copper mining's risks to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed.
The misstep undermines the strong message from state officials last November that they "expect to have access" to the research kept under wraps now for almost two years.
At issue is a June 9 decision by the DNR to authorize temporary access to 680 acres of state land to Twin Metals Minnesota. Owned by Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, it is one of several companies aiming to eventually mine the rich deposits of copper, nickel and other precious metals in northeast Minnesota.
Unlike PolyMet, another well-known copper mining project in the region, Twin Metals' operations would lie within the BWCA watershed.
Twin Metals' underground mine and accompanying aboveground operations would not be within the federally protected preserve. But its site is within a few miles of it and borders a reservoir that flows north into the watery wilderness's fragile ecosystem.
That location, and the different risks copper mining poses vs. iron mining, is why the Star Tribune Editorial Board opposed the Twin Metals project in November's "Not this mine. Not this location" special report.
To be clear, the DNR land-access decision doesn't approve the project. It just allows Twin Metals to conduct environmental evaluation of state land near the mine site. The company is eyeing the parcel as a site for tailings storage. Granting access for exploration and surveys is a very small step in what will be a yearslong permitting process.
The decision is nevertheless problematic. Federal officials have blown off congressional requests, not to mention Freedom of Information Act requests from the Editorial Board and others, to see data gathered during an almost-completed, two-year U.S. Forest Service study of copper mining's risks to the BWCA. Nor has the state had access, which is stunning given its substantial role in permitting.