New effort to open mining near BWCAW could undermine protections outside Minnesota

Rep. Pete Stauber is once again pushing to allow mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — but this time, the attempt could also empower lawmakers to overturn similar mining bans across the country.

Stauber has introduced a resolution to nullify a Biden-era action that banned mining in 225,000 acres of Superior National Forest. It’s the first time a lawmaker has tried to apply the Congressional Review Act to such a mining ban and could throw into question all bans implemented over the past two decades, advocates across the political spectrum agreed.

Stauber, in a statement, said he was “proud to stand with the hardworking men and women of Northern Minnesota and protect our region’s way of life and our rich, 145-year mining history.” His office did not respond to a request for an interview.

If the attempt to reopen mining is successful, it would have “a number of broader impacts beyond the really devastating impacts for the Boundary Waters,” said Alison Flint, the legal director for conservation group The Wilderness Society.

A memo prepared by the Interior Department this month tallied at least 28 similar bans on federal lands the past 25 years.

In 2022, the administration of then-President Joe Biden concluded that hardrock mining could not be done in the Superior Forest without the risk of lakes, streams and rivers carrying pollution into the protected Boundary Waters. That decision effectively cut off the prospects of Twin Metals, a company owned by Chilean firm Antofagasta, which has proposed an underground copper-nickel mine near Babbitt, Minn.

If the Minnesota ban is rolled back using the Congressional Review Act, a new presidential administration would not be able to bring it back. Only Congress could reinstate a similar prohibition on mining.

Usually, lawmakers use the Congressional Review Act at the very beginning of a new presidential term to reverse actions completed under the former administration, said Joe Luppino-Esposito, of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a firm focused on individual liberty and property rights. It gives lawmakers 60 working days to nullify any rule from an executive agency with a resolution that passes both chambers and receives a presidential signature.

In his second term, President Donald Trump has signed more of these rollbacks than any other former president. Together, Congress and the president removed 22 different federal rules by the end of 2025, including some resource management plans on federal lands, according to an analysis from the elections website Ballotpedia.

But the law has never been applied to mining bans like the one in Minnesota, something PLF has argued for since 2017. Past administrations have not notified Congress of these bans in the same way they do for other rules — meaning that the 60-day clock to overturn them hasn’t actually started yet.

“It’s sort of been a flaw of the way government’s operated before,” Luppino-Esposito said. “It’s really an issue of accountability to the general public.”

However, Flint said that these mining bans — known technically as mineral withdrawals — only happen after years of study and public engagement.

“Congressman Stauber is attempting an unprecedented use of the Congressional Review Act that could endanger public lands everywhere,” Sen. Tina Smith said in an emailed statement. “I’m going to do everything in my power to fight to defeat this.”

A spokesperson for Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote in an email that “there are issues with a mechanism like this one that could have far-reaching consequences for public lands across the country.”

While the resolution would move on an expedited path, Chris Knopf of Friends of the Boundary Waters said its success is not guaranteed.

“It’s a very close vote [in the House], and protecting public lands is a bipartisan issue,” he said. “There are many Republicans that are strong conservationists.”

It’s the latest in a long string of attempts by Stauber and the Trump administration to remove the ban in the Superior Forest. Stauber, who represents Minnesota’s mine country, has said mining should be further opened to ensure well-paying jobs and to provide a domestic supply of critical minerals.

Last spring, Stauber pushed to include a provision to open Superior Forest mining in a large budget package that was working its way through Congress, but it ultimately was removed.

And in July, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins posted on the website X that her agency was " initiating the process to cancel the mineral withdrawal in the [Rainy] River watershed on the Superior National Forest."